ut Bmerican iboU^a^s 



INCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 



A COMPREHENSIVE VIEW OF LINCOLN AS 
GIVEN IN THE MOST NOTEWORTHY ESSAYS, 
ORATIONS AND POEMS, IN FICTION 
AND IN LINCOLN'S OWN WRITINGS 



EDITED BY 



ROBERT HAVEN SCHAUFFLER 




NEW YORK 

MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY 

1909 



iLIBRARY of CONGRESS 

Two Gooics Recerved 

JAN 28 1909 

Copyiif't entry 

sIlass Q« XXc. no. 



iif>€^rma~ 



Copyright, 1909, by 

Moffat, Yard and Company 

New York 



Published, January, 1909 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preface ix 

Introduction xi 

I 

A BIRDSEYE VIEW OF LINCOLN 

Abraham Lincoln's Autobiography 3 

A Brief Summary of Lincoln's Life 

O shorn H. Oldroyd 6 



II 
EARLY LIFE 

Lincoln's Education Horace Greeley 15 

Abe Lincoln's Honesty 17 

The Boy that Hungered for Knowledge .... 18 

Abraham Lincoln Florence E. Pratt 19 

Young Lincoln's Kindness of Heart 20 

A Voice from the Wilderness . . Charles Sumner 21 

Choosing Abe Lincoln Captain 22 

III 
MATURITY 

Lincoln's Marriage 3^ 

IIow Lincoln and Judge B— Swapped Horses . . 33 

Lincoln as a Man of Letters . . . H. W. Mabie 34 

Lincoln's Presence of Body 44 

How Lincoln Became a National Figure 

Ida M. Tarbell 45 

Lincoln's Love for the Little Ones 89 

How Lincoln Took his Altitude 90 



CONTENTS 
IN THE WHITE HOUSE 

PAGE 

How Lincoln was Abused 95 

Sonnet in 1862 John James Piatt 96 

Lincoln the President . . . James Russell Lowell 96 

Abraham Lincoln Frank Moore 109 

The Proclamation . . . John Greenleaf Whittier no 

The Emancipation James A. Gariield 112 

The Emancipation Group . John Greenleaf Whittier 121 

Abraham Lincoln's Christmas Gift . Nora Perry 122 

V 
DEATH OF LINCOLN 

Captain ! My Captain ! . . . . Walt Whitman 127 

Abraham Lincoln's Death . . . Walt Whitman 128 

Hushed be the Camps To-day . . Walt Whitman 134 
To the Memory of Abraham Lincoln ^ 

William Cullen Bryant 135 

Crown his Bloodstained Pillow . Jtilia Ward Howe 136 

The Death of Abraham Lincoln . Walt Whitman 137 

Our Sun Hath Gone Down . . . Phoehe Gary 139 

Tolling Lucy Larcom 142 

Abraham Lincoln Rose Terry Cooke 143 

Effect of the Death of Lincoln 

Henry Ward Beecher 144 

Hymn Oliver Wendell Holmes 151 

Abraham Lincoln Tom Taylor 153 

VI 

TRIBUTES 

The Martyr Chief .... James Russell Lowell 159 

Abraham Lincoln .... Ralph Waldo Emerson 161 

Washington and Lincoln . . . William McKinley 169 

Lincoln *". • Theodore Roosevelt 170 

Lincoln's Grave Maurice Thompson 170 

Tributes to Lincoln i73 

Abraham Lincoln H. H. Brownell 174 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Tributes 189 

Abraham Lincoln ....... Joel Benton 189 

On the Life-Mask of Abraham Lincoln 

Richard Watson Gilder 190 

Lincoln George H. Boker 192 

Abraham Lincoln James A. Garfield 193 

An Horatian Ode R. H. Stoddard 195 

Some Foreign Tributes to Lincoln 

. . Harriet Beecher Stowe 202 

The Gettysburg Ode Bayard Taylor 211 

Tributes 212 

Lincoln Macmillan's Magazine 214 

Abraham Lincoln R. H. Stoddard 215 

Lincoln Edna Dean Proctor 215 

When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd 

Walt Whitman 218 

VII 
THE WHOLE MAN 

Lincoln, the Man of the People . Edwin Markham 233 
Life and Character of Abraham Lincoln 

George Bancroft 235 

Abraham Lincoln Goldwin Smith 2,y6 

Greatness of his Simplicity . . . H. A. Delano 278 

Horace Greeley's Estimate of Lincoln .... 279 

Lincoln J. T. Trozubridge 282 

The Religious Character of Lincoln . B. B. Tyler 282 

To the Spirit of Lincoln . . . . R. W. Gilder 296 

Lincoln as a Typical American . Phillips Brooks 297 

Lincoln as Cavalier and Puritan . H. W. Grady 304 

Lincoln, the Tender-Hearted . . . H. W. Botton 306 

The Character of Lincoln . . . W. H. Hemdon 307 

"With Charity for All" . . . W.T. Sherman 317 

Lincoln's Birthday Ida V. Woodbury 318 

February Twelfth M. H. Howliston 319 

Two February Birthdays 

L. M. Hadlcy and C. Z. Denton 323 



CONTENTS 

VIII 
LINCOLN'S PLACE IN HISTORY 

PAGE 

fTHE Three Greatest Americans 

Theodore Roosevelt 333 

His Choice and His Destiny . . . F. M. Bristol 333 

Abraham Lincoln .... Robert G. IngersoU 334 

Lincoln Paul Laurence Dunbar 341 

The Grandest Figure PValt Whitman 342 

Abraham Lincoln Lyman Abbott 345 

*' Lincoln the Immortal" Anonymous 346 

The Crisis and the Hero . . . Frederic Harrison 349 

Lincoln John Vance Cheney 351 

Majestic in his Individuality . . S. P. Newman 353 

IX 
LINCOLN YARNS AND SAYINGS 

The Question of Legs 359 

How Lincoln was Presented with a Knife . . . 360 

"Weeping Water" 361 

Mild Rebuke to a Doctor 362 

X 

FROM LINCOLN'S SPEECHES AND WRITINGS 

Lincoln's Life as Written by Himft^lf .... 365 

The Injustice of Slavery 365 

Speech at Cooper Institute 368 

First Inaugural Address 37^ 

Letter to Horace Greeley 37^ 

Emancipation Proclamation 378 

Thanksgiving Proclamation 380 

Gettysburg Address 382 

Remarks to Negroes on the Streets of Richmond 383 

Second Inaugural Address 384 



PREFACE 

An astounding number of books have been writ- 
ten on Abraham Lincoln. Our Library of Con- 
gress contains over one thousand of them in well- 
nigh every modern language. Yet, incredible as it 
may seem, no miner has until to-day delved in these 
vast fields of Lincolniana until he has brought to- 
gether the most precious of the golden words writ- 
ten of and by the Man of the People. Howe has 
collected a few of the best poems on Lincoln; 
Rice, Oldroyd and others, the elder prose tributes 
and reminiscences. McClure has edited Lincoln's 
yarns and stories; Nicolay and Hay, his speeches 
and writings. But each successive twelfth of Feb- 
ruary has emphasized the growing need for a unifi- 
cation of this scattered material. 

The present volume offers, in small compass, the 
most noteworthy essays, orations, fiction and poems 
on Lincoln, together with some fiction, with char- 
acteristic anecdotes and " yarns " and his most fa- 
mous speeches and writings. Taken in conjunction 
with a good biography, it presents the first succinct 
yet comprehensive view of " the first American." 
The Introduction gives some account of the celebra- 
tion of Lincoln's Birthday and of his principal biog- 
raphers. 

ix 



NOTE 

The Editor and Publishers wish to acknowledge 
their indebtedness to Houghton, Mifflin & Company ; 
the McClure Company, R. S. Peale and J. A. Hill 
Co.; Charles Scribner's Sons; Dana Estes Com- 
pany ; Mr. David McKay, Mr. Joel Benton, Mr. C. 
P. Farrell and others who have very kindly granted 
permission to reprint selections from works bearing 
their copyright. 



INTRODUCTION 

Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth President of the 
United States, was born at Nolin Creek, Kentucky, 
on Feb. 12, 1809. As the following pages contain 
more than one biographical sketch it is not neces- 
sary here to touch on the story of his life. Lin- 
coln's Birthday is now a legal holiday in Connecti- 
cut, Delaware, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, 
New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Washing- 
ton (state) and Wyoming, and is generally observed 
in the other Northern States. 

In its inspirational value to youth Lincoln's 
Birthday stands among the most important of our 
American holidays. Its celebration in school and 
home can not be made too impressive. " Rising as 
Lincoln did," writes Edward Deems, " from social 
obscurity through a youth of manual toil and 
poverty, steadily upward to the highest level of 
honor in the world, and all this as the fruit of 
earnest purpose, hard work, humane feeling and 
integrity of character, he is an example and an in- 
spiration to youth unparalleled in history. At the 
same time he is the best specimen of the possi- 
bilities attainable by genius in our land and under 
our free institutions." 

In arranging exercises for Lincoln's Birthday 
the teacher and parent should try not so much to 
teach the bare facts of his career as to give the 

xi 



xii LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

children a sense of Lincoln's actual personality 
through his own yarns and speeches and such ac- 
counts as are given here by Herndon, Bancroft, 
Mabie, Tarbell, Phillips Brooks and others. He 
should show them Lincoln's greatest single act — 
Emancipation — through the eyes of Garfield and 
Whittier. He should try to reach the children with 
the thrill of an adoring sorrow-maddened country 
at the bier of its great preserver; with such a 
passion of love and patriotism as vibrates in the 
lines of Whitman, Brownell and Bryant, of 
Stoddard, Procter, Howe, Holmes, Lowell, and in 
the throbbing periods of Henry Ward Beecher. 
His main object should be to make his pupils 
love Lincoln. He should appeal to their national 
pride with the foreign tributes to Lincoln's great- 
ness; make them feel how his memory still works 
through the years upon such contemporary poets 
as Gilder, Thompson, Markham, Cheney and 
Dunbar; and finally through the eyes of Harrison, 
Whitman, Ingersoll, Newman and others, show 
them our hero set in his proud, rightful place in 
the long vista of the ages. 

In order to use the present volume with the 
best results it is advisable for teacher and parent 
to gain a more consecutive view of Lincoln's life 
than is offered here. 

The standard biography of Lincoln is the monu- 
mental one in ten large volumes by Nicolay and 
Hay, the President's private secretaries. This con- 
tains considerable material not found elsewhere, 
but since its publication in 1890 much new matter 



INTRODUCTION xiii 

has been unearthed, especially by the enterprise of 
Miss Ida Tarbell, whose " Life " in two volumes 
contains the essentials of the larger official work, 
is well balanced, and written in a simple, vigorous 
style perfectly adapted to the subject. If only one 
biography of Lincoln is to be read, Miss Tarbell's 
will, on the whole, be found most satisfactory. 

The older Lives, written by Lincoln's friends and 
associates, such as Lamon and Herndon, make up 
in vividness and the intimate personal touch what 
they necessarily lack in perspective. Arnold's Life 
deals chiefly with the executive and legislative his- 
tory of Lincoln's administration. The Life by the 
novelist J. G. Holland deals popularly with his 
hero's personality. The memoirs by Barrett, Ab- 
bott, Howells, Bartlett, Hanaford and Power were 
written in the main for political purposes. 

Among the later works there stand out Morse's 
scholarly and serious account (in the American 
Statesmen series) of Lincoln's public policy; the 
vivid portrayal of Lincoln's adroitness as a poli- 
tician by Col. McClure in Abraham Lincoln and 
Men of War Times; Whitney's Life on the Cir- 
cuit with Lincoln, with its fund of entertain- 
ing anecdotes; Abraham Lincoln, an Essay by 
Carl Schurz ; James Morgan's " short and simple 
annals " of Abraham Lincoln The Boy and the 
Man; Frederick Trevor Hill's brilliant account of 
Lincoln the Lawyer, the result of much recent re- 
search; the study of his personal magnetism in 
Alonzo Rothschild's Lincoln, Master of Men; and 
The True Abraham Lincoln by Curtis — a collec- 



xiv LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

tion of sketches portraying Lincoln's character 
from several interesting points of view. Abraham 
Lincoln The Man of the People by Norman Hap- 
good is one of most recent and least conventional 
accounts. It is short, vigorous, vivid, and intensely 
American. 

Among the many popular Lives for young people 
are : Abraham Lincoln, the Pioneer Boy, by W. M. 
Thayer; Abraham Lincoln, The Backwoods Boy, 
by Horatio Alger, Jr. ; Abraham Lincoln, by 
Charles Carleton Coffin ; The True Story of Abra- 
ham Lincoln The American, by E. S. Brooks; The 
Boy Lincoln, by W. O. Stoddard ; and — most im- 
portant of all — Nicolay's Boy's Life of Abraham 
Lincoln. 

R. H. S. 



I 

A BIRDSEYE VIEW OF LINCOLN 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY 

The following autobiography was written by Mr. 
Lincoln's own hand at the request of J. W. Fell of 
Springfield, 111., December 20, 1859. I" the note which 
accompanied it the writer says : " Herewith is a little 
sketch, as you requested. TTiere is not much of it, for 
the reason, I suppose, that there is not much of me." 

** I was born February 12, 1809, in Hardin Co., 
Ky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of 
undistinguished families — second families, per- 
haps I should say. My mother, who died in my 
tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks, 
some of whom now reside in Adams Co., and 
others in Mason Co., 111. My paternal grand- 
father, Abraham Lincoln, emigrated from Rock- 
ingham Co., Va., to Kentucky, about 1781 or 1782, 
where, a year or two later, he was killed by Indians, 
not in battle, but by stealth, when he was laboring 
to open a farm in the forest. His ancestors, who 
were Quakers, went to Virginia from Berks Co., 
Pa. An effort to identify them with the New Eng- 
land family of the same name ended in nothing 
more definite than a similarity of Christain names 
in both families, such as Enoch, Levi, Mordecai, 
Solomon, Abraham, and the like. 

" My father, at the death of his father, was but 
3 



4 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

six years of age, and grew up literally without any 
education. He removed from Kentucky to what is 
now Spencer Co., Ind., in my eighth year. We 
reached our new home about the time the State 
came into the Union. It was a wild region, with 
many bears and other wild animals still in the 
woods. There I grew up. There were some 
schools, so-called, but no qualification was ever re- 
quired of a teacher beyond ' readin', writin', and ci- 
phering to the rule of three. If a straggler, sup- 
posed to understand Latin, happened to sojourn in 
the neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wiz- 
ard. There was absolutely nothing to excite ambi- 
tion for education. Of course, when I came of 
age I did not know much. Still, somehow, I could 
read, write, and cipher to the rule of three, but that 
was all. I have not been to school since. The lit- 
tle advance I now have upon this store of educa- 
tion I have picked up from time to time under the 
pressure of necessity. 

" I was raised to farm work, at which I con- 
tinued till I was twenty-two. At twenty-one I 
came to Illinois, and passed the first year in 
Macon County. Then I got to New Salem, at that 
time in Sangamon, now Menard County, where I 
remained a year as a sort of clerk in a store. Then 
came the Black Hawk War, and I was elected a 
captain of volunteers — a success which gave me 
more pleasure than any I have had since. I went 
into the campaign, was elected, ran for the Legisla- 
ture the same year (1832), and was beaten — the 
only time I have ever been beaten by the people. 



LINCOLN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY 5 

The next and three succeeding biennial elections I 
was elected to the Legislature. I was not a candi- 
date afterward. During the legislative period I 
had studied law, and removed to Springfield to 
practice it. In 1846 I was elected to the Lower 
House of Congress. Was not a candidate for re- 
election. From 1849 to 1854, both inclusive, prac- 
ticed law more assiduously than ever before. Al- 
ways a Whig in politics, and generally on the Whig 
electoral ticket, making active canvasses. I was 
losing interest in politics when the repeal of the 
Missouri Compromise aroused me again. What 
I have done since then is pretty well known. 

" If any personal description of me is thought 
desirable, it may be said I am in height six feet 
four inches, nearly; lean in flesh, weighing, on an 
average, one hundred and eighty pounds; dark 
complexion, with coarse black hair and gray eyes — 
no other marks or brands recollected. 

** Yours very truly, 

A. Lincoln." 



A BRIEF SUMMARY OF LINCOLN'S LIFE 

BY OSBORN H. OLDROYD 

From " Words of Lincoln '* 

The sun which rose on the I2th of February, 
1809, Hghted up a Uttle log cabin on Nolin Creek, 
Hardin Co., Ky., in which Abraham Lincoln was 
that day ushered into the world. Although born 
under the humblest and most unpromising circum- 
stances, he was of honest parentage. In this back- 
woods hut, surrounded by virgin forests, Abraham's 
first four years were spent. His parents then 
moved to a point about six miles from Hodgens- 
ville, where he lived until he was seven years of 
age, when the family again moved, this time to 
Spencer Co., Ind. 

The father first visited the new settlement alone, 
taking with him his carpenter tools, a few farm- 
ing implements, and ten barrels of whisky (the 
latter being the payment received for his little 
farm) on a flatboat down Salt Creek to the Ohio 
River. Crossing the river, he left his cargo in 
care of a friend, and then returned for his family. 
Packing the bedding and cooking utensils on two 
horses, the family of four started for their new 
home. They wended their way through the Ken- 
tucky forests to those of Indiana, the mother and 
daughter (Sarah) taking their turn in riding. 

6 



LINCOLN'S LIFE 7 

Fourteen years were spent in the Indiana home. 
It was from this place that Abraham, in company 
with young Gentry, made a trip to New Orleans 
on a flatboat loaded with country produce. Dur- 
ing these years Abraham had less than twelve 
months of schooling, but acquired a large experi- 
ence in the rough work of pioneer life. In the au- 
tumn of 1818 the mother died, and Abraham ex- 
perienced the first great sorrow of his life. Mrs. 
Lincoln had possessed a very limited education, 
but was noted for intellectual force of character. 

The year following the death of Abraham's 
mother his father returned to Kentucky, and 
brought a new guardian to the two motherless chil- 
dren. Mrs. Sally Johnson, as Mrs. Lincoln, 
brought into the family three children of her own, 
a goodly amount of household furniture, and, what 
proved a blessing above all others, a kind heart. 
It was not intended that this should be a permanent 
home; accordingly, in March, 1830, they packed 
their effects in wagons, drawn by oxen, bade adieu 
to their old home, and took up a two weeks' march 
over untraveled roads, across mountains, swamps, 
and through dense forests, until they reached a spot 
on the Sangamon River, ten miles from Decatur, 
111., where they built another primitive home. 
Abraham had now arrived at manhood, and felt at 
liberty to go out into the world and battle for him- 
self. He did not leave, however, until he saw his 
parents comfortably fixed in their new home, which 
he helped build; he also split enough rails to sur- 
round the house and ten acres of ground. 



8 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

In the fall and winter of 1830, memorable to 
the early settlers of Illinois as the year of the deep 
snow, Abraham worked for the farmers who lived 
in the neighborhood. He made the acquaintance 
of a man of the name of Offutt, who hired him, to- 
gether with his stepbrother, John D. Johnson, and 
his uncle, John Hanks, to take a flatboat loaded 
with country produce down the Sangamon River 
to Beardstown, thence down the IlHnois and Mis- 
sissippi rivers to New Orleans. Abraham and 
his companions assisted in building the boat, which 
w^as finally launched and loaded in the spring of 
1 83 1, and their trip successfully made. In going 
over the dam at Rutledge Mill, New Salem, 111., 
the boat struck and remained stationary, and a 
day passed before it was again started on its voy- 
age. During this delay Lincoln made the acquaint- 
ance of New Salem and its people. 

On his return from New Orleans, after visiting 
his parents, — who had made another move, to 
Goose-Nest Prairie, 111., — he settled in the Httle 
village of New Salem, then in Sangamon, now 
Menard County. While living in this place, Mr. 
Lincoln served in the Black Hawk War, in 1832, 
as captain and private. His employment in the 
village was varied; he was at times a clerk, county 
surveyor, postmaster, and partner in the grocery 
business under the firm name of Lincoln & Berry. 
He was defeated for the Illinois Legislature in 
1832 by Peter Cartwright, the Methodist pioneer 
preacher. He was elected to the Legislature in 
1834, and for three successive terms thereafter. 



LINCOLN'S LIFE 9 

Mr. Lincoln wielded a great influence among the 
people of New Salem. They respected him for his 
uprightness and admired him for his genial and 
social qualities. He had an earnest sympathy for 
the unfortunate and those in sorrow. All con- 
fided in him, honored and loved him. He had an 
unfailing fund of anecdote, was a sharp, witty 
talker, and possessed an accommodating spirit, 
which led him to exert himself for the entertain- 
ment of his friends. During the political canvass 
of 1834, Mr. Lincoln made the acquaintance of Mr. 
John T. Stuart of Springfield, 111. Mr. Stuart saw 
in the young man that which, if properly de- 
veloped, could not fail to confer distinction on him. 
He therefore loaned Lincoln such law books as he 
needed, the latter often walking from New Salem 
to Springfield, a distance of twenty miles, to ob- 
tain them. It was very fortunate for Mr. Lincoln 
that he finally became associated with Mr. Stuart 
in the practice of law. He moved from New Salem 
to Springfield, and was admitted to the bar in 1837. 

On the 4th of November, 1842, Mr. Lincoln 
married Miss Mary Todd of Lexington, Ky., at 
the residence of Ninian W. Edwards of Springfield, 
111. The fruits of this marriage were four sons; 
Robert T., born August i, 1843; Edward Baker, 
March 10, 1846, died February i, 1850; William 
Wallace, December 21, 1850, died at the White 
House, Washington, February 20, 1862; Thomas 
(" Tad "), April 4, 1853, died at the Clifton House, 
Chicago, 111., July 15, 1871. Mrs. Lincoln died at 
the house of her sister, Springfield, July 16, 1882. 



lo LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

In 1846 Mr. Lincoln was elected to Congress, as 
a Whig, his opponent being Peter Cartwright, who 
had defeated Mr. Lincoln for the Legislature in 
1832. 

The most remarkable political canvass witnessed 
in the country took place between Mr. Lincoln and 
Stephen A. Douglas in 1858. They were candi- 
dates of their respective parties for the United 
States Senate. Seven joint debates took place in 
different parts of the State. The Legislature be- 
ing of Mr. Douglas' political faith, he was elected. 

In i860 Mr. Lincoln came before the country as 
the chosen candidate of the Republican party for 
the Presidency. The campaign was a memorable 
one, characterized by a novel organization called 
" Wide Awakes," which had its origin in Hart- 
ford, Conn. There were rail fence songs, rail- 
splitting on wagons in processions, and the build- 
ing of fences by the torch-light marching clubs. 

The triumphant election of Mr. Lincoln took 
place in November, i860. On the nth of Febru- 
ary, 1 861, he bade farewell to his neighbors, and 
as the train slowly left the depot his sad face was 
forever lost to the friends who gathered that morn- 
ing to bid him God speed. The people along the 
route flocked at the stations to see him and hear his 
words. At all points he was greeted as the Presi- 
dent of the people, and such he proved to be. Mr. 
Lincoln reached Washington on the morning of the 
23rd of February, and on the 4th of March was 
inaugurated President. Through four years of 
terrible war his guiding star was justice and mercy. 



LINCOLN'S LIFE ii 

He was sometimes censured by officers of the army 
for granting pardons to deserters and others, but 
he could not resist an appeal for the life of a 
soldier. He was the friend of the soldiers, and 
felt and acted toward them like a father. Even 
workingmen could write him letters of encourage- 
ment and receive appreciative words in reply. 

When the immortal Proclamation of Emancipa- 
tion was issued, the whole world applauded, and 
slavery received its deathblow. The terrible strain 
of anxiety and responsibility borne by Mr. Lincoln 
during the war had worn him away to a marked 
degree, but that God who was with him through- 
out the struggle permitted him to live, and by his 
masterly efforts and unceasing vigilance pilot the 
ship of state back into the haven of peace. 

On the 14th of April, 1865, after a day of un- 
usual cheerfulness in those troublous times, and 
seeking relaxation from his cares, the President, 
accompanied by his wife and a few intimate friends, 
went to Ford's Theater, on Tenth Street, N. W. 
There the foul assassin, J. Wilkes Booth, awaited 
his coming and at twenty minutes past ten o'clock, 
just as the third act of " Our American Cousin " 
was about to commence, fired the shot that took the 
life of Abraham Lincoln. The bleeding President 
was carried to a house across the street, No. 516, 
where he died at twenty-two minutes past seven the 
next morning. The body was taken to the White 
House and, after lying in state in the East Room 
and at the Capitol, left Washington on the 21st of 
April, stopping at various places en route, and 



12 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

finally arriving at Springfield on the 3rd of May. 
On the following day the funeral ceremonies took 
place at Oak Ridge Cemetery, and there the re- 
mains of the martyr were laid at rest. 

Abraham Lincoln needs no marble shaft to per- 
petuate his name; his zvords are the most endur- 
ing monument, and will forever live in the hearts 
of the people. 



II 

EARLY LIFE 



LINCOLN'S EDUCATION ^ 

BY HORACE GREELEY 

Let me pause here to consider the surprise often 
expressed when a citizen of Hmited schooHng is 
chosen to fill, or is presented for one of the high- 
est civil trusts. Has that argument any founda- 
tion in reason, any justification in history? 

Of our country's great men, beginning with Ben 
Franklin, I estimate that a majority had little if 
anything more than a common-school education, 
while many had less. Washington, Jefferson, and 
Madison had rather more ; Clay and Jackson some- 
what less; Van Buren perhaps a Httle more; Lin- 
coln decidedly less. How great was his conse- 
quent loss? I raise the question; let others decide 
it. Having seen much of Henry Clay, I confidently 
assert that not one in ten of those who knew him 
late in life would have suspected, from aught in 
his conversation or bearing, that his education 
had been inferior to that of the college graduates 
by whom he was surrounded. His knowledge 
was different from theirs ; and the same is true of 
Lincoln's as well. Had the latter lived to be 
seventy years old, I judge that whatever of hesita- 
tion or rawness was observable in his manner 

"^ By permission of Mr. Joel Benton. 

15 



i6 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

would have vanished, and he would have met and 
mingled with educated gentlemen and statesmen on 
the same easy footing of equality with Henry Clay 
in his later prime of life. How far his two flatboat 
voyages to New Orleans are to be classed as edu- 
cational exercise above or below a freshman's year 
in college, I will not say; doubtless some freshmen 
learn more, others less, than those journeys taught 
him. Reared under the shadow of the primitive 
woods, which on every side hemmed in the petty 
clearings of the generally poor, and rarely ener- 
getic or diligent, pioneers of the Southern Indiana 
wilderness, his first introduction to the outside 
world from the deck of a '' broad-horn " must have 
been wonderfully interesting and suggestive. To 
one whose utmost experience of civilization had 
been a county town, consisting of a dozen to twenty 
houses, mainly log, with a shabby little court-house, 
including jail, and a shabbier, ruder little church, 
that must have been a marvelous spectacle which 
glowed in his face from the banks of the Ohio and 
the lower Mississippi. Though Cairo was then 
but a desolate swamp, Memphis a wood-landing, 
and Vicksburg a timbered ridge with a few stores 
at its base, even these were in striking contrast to 
the sombre monotony of the great woods. The 
rivers were enlivened by countless swift-speeding 
steamboats, dispensing smoke by day and flame by 
night; while New Orleans, though scarcely one 
fourth the city she now is, was the focus of a vast 
commerce, and of a civilization which (for 
America) might be deemed antique. I doubt not 



ABE LINCOLN'S HONESTY 17 

that our tall and green young backwoodsman 
needed only a piece of well-tanned sheepskin suit- 
ably (that is, learnedly) inscribed to have rendered 
those two boat trips memorable as his degrees in 
capacity to act well his part on that stage which has 
mankind for its audience. 



ABE LINCOLN'S HONESTY 

From " Anecdotes of Abraham Lincoln and Lin- 
coln's Stories." 

Lincoln could not rest for an instant under the 
consciousness that he had, even unwittingly, de- 
frauded anybody. On one occasion, while clerk- 
ing in Offutt's store, at New Salem, 111., he sold 
a woman a little bill of goods, amounting in 
value by the reckoning, to two dollars six and a 
quarter cents. He received the money, and the 
woman went away. On adding the items of the 
bill again, to make sure of its correctness, he 
found that he had taken six and a quarter cents 
too much. It was night, and, closing and locking 
the store, he started out on foot, a distance of two 
or three miles, for the house of his defrauded cus- 
tomer, and, delivering over to her the sum whose 
possession had so much troubled him, went home 
satisfied. 

On another occasion, just as he was closing the 
store for the night, a woman entered, and asked 
for a half pound of tea. The tea was weighed out 



i8 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY, 

and paid for, and the store was left for the night. 
The next morning, Lincoln entered to begin the 
duties of the day, when he discovered a four-ounce 
weight on the scales. He saw at once that he had 
made a mistake, and, shutting the store, he took 
a long walk before breakfast to deliver the remain- 
der of the tea. These are very humble incidents, 
but they illustrate the man's perfect conscientious- 
ness — his sensitive honesty — better perhaps than 
they would if they were of greater moment. 



THE BOY THAT HUNGERED FOR KNOWL- 
EDGE 

From " Anecdotes of Abraham Lincoln and Lin- 
coln's Stories." 

In his eagerness to acquire knowledge, young 
Lincoln had borrowed of Mr. Crawford, a neigh- 
boring farmer, a copy of Weems' Life of Washing- 
ton — the only one known to be in existence in that 
section of country. Before he had finished reading 
the book, it had been left, by a not unnatural over- 
sight, in a window. Meantime, a rain storm came 
on, and the book was so thoroughly wet as to 
make it nearly worthless. This mishap caused him 
much pain; but he went, in all honesty, to Mr. 
Crawford with the ruined book, explained the 
calamity that had happened through his neglect, 
and offered, not having sufficient money, to " work 
out " the value of the book. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 19 

" Well, Abe," said Mr. Crawford, after due de- 
liberation, '* as it's you, I won't be hard on you. 
Just come over and pull fodder for me for two 
days, and we will call our accounts even." 

The offer was readily accepted, and the engage- 
ment literally fulfilled. As a boy, no less than since, 
Abraham Lincoln had an honorable conscientious- 
ness, integrity, industry, and an ardent love of 
knowledge. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN^ 

BY FLORENCE EVELYN PRATT 

Lincoln, the woodsman, in the clearing stood. 

Hemmed by the solemn forest stretching round; 
Stalwart, ungainly, honest-eyed and rude. 

The genius of that solitude profound. 
He clove the way that future millions trod, 

He passed, unmoved by worldly -fear or pelf ; 
In all his lusty toil he found not God, 

Though in the wilderness he found himself. 

Lincoln, the President, in bitter strife. 

Best-loved, worst-hated of all living men. 
Oft single-handed, for the nation's life 

Fought on, nor rested ere he fought again. 
With one unerring purpose armed, he clove 

Through selfish sin ; then overwhelmed with care. 
His great heart sank beneath its load of love; 

Crushed to his knees, he found his God in prayer. 

1 From The Youth's Companion. 



20 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

YOUNG LINCOLN'S KINDNESS OF HEART 

From " Anecdotes of Abraham Lincoln." 

An instance of young Lincoln's practical hu- 
manity at an early period of his Hfe is recorded, 
as follows : One evening, while returning from 
a " raising " in his wide neighborhood, with a 
number of companions, he discovered a straying 
horse, with saddle and bridle upon him. The horse 
was recognized as belonging to a man who was ac- 
customed to excess in drink, and it was suspected 
at once that the owner was not far off. A short 
search only was necessary to confirm the suspicions 
of the young men. 

The poor drunkard was found in a perfectly 
helpless condition, upon the chilly ground. Abra- 
ham's companions urged the cowardly policy of 
leaving him to his fate, but young Lincoln would 
not hear to the proposition. At his request, the 
miserable sot was lifted to his shoulders, and he 
actually carried him eighty rods to the nearest 
house. Sending word to his father that he should 
not be back that night, with the reason for his 
absence, he attended and nursed the man until the 
morning, and had the pleasure of believing that he 
had saved his life. 



FROM THE WILDERNESS 21 

A VOICE FROM THE WILDERNESS 

BY CHARLES SUMNER 

Abraham Lincoln was born, and, until he became 
President, always lived in a part of the country 
which, at the period of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, was a savage wilderness. Strange but 
happy Providence, that a voice from that savage 
wilderness, now fertile in men, was inspired to up- 
hold the pledges and promises of the Declaration! 
The unity of the republic on the indestructible 
foundation of liberty and equality was vindicated 
by the citizen of a community which had no ex- 
istence when the republic was formed. 

A cabin was built in primitive rudeness, and the 
future President spilt the rails for the fence to in- 
close the lot. These rails have become classical 
in our history, and the name of rail-splitter has been 
more than the degree of a college. Not that 
the splitter of rails is especially meritorious, but 
because the people are proud to trace aspiring talent 
to humble beginnings, and because they found in 
this tribute a new opportunity of vindicating the 
dignity of free labor. 



22 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 



CHOOSING " ABE '^ LINCOLN CAPTAIN 

From " Choosing ' Abe ' Lincoln Captain, and 
Other Stories " 

When the Black Hawk war broke out in Illinois 
about 1832, young Abraham Lincoln was living 
at New Salem, a little village of the class familiarly 
known out west as " one-horse towns," and lo- 
cated near the capital city of Illinois. 

He had just closed his clerkship of a year in a 
feeble grocery, and was the first to enlist under 
the call of Governor Reynolds for volunteer forces 
to go against the Sacs and Foxes, of whom Black 
Hawk was chief. 

By treaty these Indians had been removed west 
of the Mississippi into Iowa ; but, thinking their old 
hunting-grounds the better, they had recrossed the 
river with their war paint on, causing some trouble, 
and a great deal of alarm among the settlers. 
Such was the origin of the war; and the handful 
of government troops stationed at Rock Island 
wanted help. Hence the State call. 

Mr. Lincoln was twenty-three years old at that 
time, nine years older than his adopted State. The 
country was thinly settled, and a company of ninety 
men who could be spared from home for military 
service had to be gathered from a wide district. 
When full, the company met at the neighboring 
village of Richland to choose its officers. In those 



CHOOSING LINCOLN CAPTAIN 23 

days the militia men were allowed to select their 
leaders in their own way; and they had a very 
peculiar mode of expressing their preference for 
captains. For then, as now, there were almost al- 
ways two candidates for one office. 

They would meet on the green somewhere, and 
at the appointed hour, the competitors would step 
out from the crowds on the opposite sides of the 
ground, and each would call on all the " boys " who 
wanted Rim for captain to fall in behind him. As 
the Hne formed, the man next the candidate would 
put his hands on the candidate's shoulder ; the third 
man also in the same manner to the second man; 
and so on to the end. And then they would march 
and cheer for their leader like so many wild men, 
in order to win over the fellows who didn't seem 
to have a choice, or whose minds were sure to run 
after the greater noise. When all had taken sides, 
the man who led the longer line, would be declared 
captain. 

Mr. Lincoln never outgrew the familiar nick- 
name, '* Abe," but at that time he could hardly be 
said to have any other name than ** Abe " ; in fact 
he had emerged from clerking in that little corner 
grocery as " Honest Abe." He was not only liked, 
but loved, in the rough fashion of the frontier by 
all who knew him. He was a good hand at gun- 
ning, fishing, racing, wrestling and other games; 
he had a tall and strong figure; and he seemed to 
have been as often " reminded of a little story " in 
'32 as in '62. And the few men not won by these 



24 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

qualities, were won and held by his great common 
sense, which restrained him from excesses even in 
sports, and made him a safe friend. 

It is not singular therefore that though a stranger 
to many of the enlisted men, he should have had 
his warm friends who at once determined to make 
him captain. 

But Mr. Lincoln hung back with the feeling, he 
said, that if there was any older and better es- 
tablished citizen whom the '* boys " had confidence 
in, it would be better to make such a one captain. 
His poverty was even more marked than his 
modesty ; and for his stock of education about that 
time, he wrote in a letter to a friend twenty-seven 
years later: 

" I did not know much ; still, somehow, I could 
read, write, and cipher to the rule of three, but 
that was all." 

That, however, was up to the average education 
of the community; and having been clerk in a 
country grocery he was considered an educated 
man. 

In the company Mr. Lincoln had joined, there 
was a dapper little chap for whom Mr. Lincoln had 
labored as a farm hand a year before, and whom 
he had left on account of ill treatment from him. 
This man was eager for the captaincy. He put 
in his days and nights " log-rolling " among his 
fellow volunteers; said he had already smelt gun- 
powder in a brush with Indians, thus urging the 
value of experience ; even thought he had a '* mar- 
tial bearing " ; and he was very industrious in get- 



CHOOSING LINCOLN CAPTAIN 25 

ting those men to join the company who would 
probably vote for him to be captain. 

Muster-day came, and the recruits met to or- 
ganize. About them stood several hundred rela- 
tives and other friends. 

The little candidate was early on hand and busily 
bidding for votes. He had felt so confident of the 
office in advance of muster-day, that he had rum- 
maged through several country tailor-shops and 
got a new suit of the nearest approach to a cap- 
tain's uniform that their scant stock could furnish. 
So there he was, arrayed in jaunty cap, and a 
swallow-tailed coat with brass buttons. He even 
wore fine boots, and moreover had them blacked — 
which was almost a crime among a country crowd 
of that day. 

Young Lincoln took not one step to make him- 
self captain ; and not one to prevent it. He simply 
put himself " in the hands of his friends," as the 
politicians say. He stood and quietly watched the 
trouble others were borrowing over the matter as 
if it were an election of officers they had enlisted 
for, rather than for fighting Indians. But after 
all, a good deal depends in war, on getting good 
officers. 

As two o'clock drew near, the hour set for mak- 
ing captain, four or five of young Lincoln's most 
zealous friends with a big stalwart fellow at the 
head edged along pretty close to him, yet not in 
a way to excite suspicion of a " conspiracy." Just 
a little bit before two, without even letting " Abe " 
himself know exactly " what was up," the big fel- 



26 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

low stepped directly behind him, clapped his hands 
on the shoulders before him, and shouted as only 
prairie giants can, " Hurrah for Captain Abe Lin- 
coln ! " and plunged his really astonished candidate 
forward into a march. 

At the same instant, those in league with him 
also put hands to the shoulders before them, pushed, 
and took up the cheer, " Hurrah for Captain Abe 
Lincoln ! " so loudly that there seemed to be sev- 
eral hundred already on their side; and so there 
were, for the outside crowd was also already cheer- 
ing for " Abe." 

This little " ruse " of the Lincoln " boys " proved 
a complete success. " Abe " had to march, whether 
or no-, to the music of their cheers ; he was truly 
" in the hands of his friends " then, and couldn't 
get away; and it must be said he didn't seem to 
feel very bad over the situation. The storm of 
cheers and the sight of tall Abraham (six feet and 
four inches) at the head of the marching column, 
before the fussy little chap in brass buttons who 
was quite ready, caused a quick stampede even 
among the boys who intended to vote for the little 
fellow. One after another they rushed for a place 
in " Captain Abe's " line as though to be first to 
fall in was to win a prize. 

A few rods away stood that suit of captain's 
clothes alone, looking smaller than ever, *' the 
starch all taken out of 'em," their occupant con- 
founded, and themselves for sale. " Abe's " old 
" boss " said he was " astonished," and so he had 
good reason to be, but everybody could see it with- 



CHOOSING LINCOLN CAPTAIN 27 

out his saying so. His *' style " couldn't win 
among the true and shrewd, though unpolished 
" boys " in coarse garments. They saw right 
through him. 

'' Buttons," as he became known from that day, 
was the last man to fall into " Abe's " line ; he said 
he'd make it unanimous. 

But his experience in making " Abe " Captain 
made himself so sick that he wasn't " able " to 
move when the company left for the ** front," 
though he soon grew able to move out of the pro- 
cession. 

Thus was " Father Abraham," so young as 
twenty-three, chosen captain of a militia company 
over him whose abused, hired-hand he had been. 
It is little wonder that in '59 after three elections 
to the State Legislature and one to Congress, Mr. 
Lincoln should write of his early event as " a suc- 
cess which gave me more pleasure than any I have 
had since." The war was soon over with but little 
field work for the volunteers; but no private was 
known to complain that " Abe '* was not a good 
captain. 



Ill 

MATURITY 



i 



I 



LINCOLN'S MARRIAGE — A PEEP INTO 
LINCOLN'S SOCIAL LIFE 

In 1842, in his thirty-third year, Mr. Lincoln 
married Miss Mary Todd, a daughter of Hon. 
Robert S. Todd, of Lexington, Kentucky. The 
marriage took place in Springfield, where the lady 
had for several years resided, on the fourth of 
November of the year mentioned. It is probable 
that he married as early as the circumstances of 
his life permitted, for he had always loved the 
society of women, and possessed a nature that took 
profound delight in intimate female companionship. 
A letter written on the eighteenth of May follow- 
ing his marriage, to J. F. Speed, Esq., of Louis- 
ville, Kentucky, an early and a life-long personal 
friend, gives a pleasant glimpse of his domestic 
arrangements at this time. *' We are not keeping 
house," Mr. Lincoln says in his letter, " but board- 
ing at the Globe Tavern, which is very well kept 
now by a widow lady of the name of Beck. Our 
rooms are the same Dr. Wallace occupied there, 
and boarding only costs four dollars a week. 
. . . I most heartily wish you and your Fanny 
would not fail to come. Just let us know the time, 
a week in advance, and we will have a room pre- 
pared for you, and we'll all be merry together for 
awhile." He seems to have been in excellent spirits, 
and to have been very hearty in the enjoyment of 
31 



32 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

his new relation. The private letters of Mr. Lin- 
coln were charmingly natural and sincere. His 
personal friendships were the sweetest sources of 
his happiness. 

To a particular friend, he wrote February 25, 
1842: "Yours of the sixteenth, announcing that 

Miss and you ' are no longer twain, but one 

flesh,' reached me this morning. I have no way 
of telling you how much happiness I wish you 
both, though I believe you both can conceive it. 
I feel somewhat jealous of both of you now, for you 
will be so exclusively concerned for one another 
that I shall be forgotten entirely. My acquaintance 

with Miss (I call her thus lest you should 

think I am speaking of your mother), was too 
short for me to reasonably hope to be long remem- 
bered by her ; and still I am sure I shall not forget 
her soon. Try if you can not remind her of that 
debt she owes me, and be sure you do not inter- 
fere to prevent her paying it. 

" I regret to learn that you have resolved not to 
return to Illinois. I shall be very lonesome with- 
out you. How miserably things seem to be ar- 
ranged in this world! If we have no friends we 
have no pleasure; and if we have them, we are 
sure to lose them, and be doubly pained by the 
loss. I did hope she and you would make your 
home here, yet I own I have no right to insist. 
You owe obligations to her ten thousand times more 
sacred than any you can owe to others, and in 
thiat light let them be respected and observed. It 
is natural that she should desire to remain with 



LINCOLN AND JUDGE B 33 

her relations and friends. As to friends, she could 
not need them anywhere -she would have them 
in abundance here. Give my kind regards to Mr. 

and his family, particularly to Miss E. Also 

to your mother, brothers and sisters. Ask little 

g p if she will ride to town with me if 1 

come'there again. And, finally, give a double 

reciprocation of all the love she sent me. Write 
me often and believe me, yours forever, 

Lincoln. 



HOW LINCOLN AND JUDGE B SWAP- 
PED HORSES 

From " Anecdotes of Abraham Lincoln." 
When Abraham Lincoln was a lawyer in Illinois, 
he and a certain Judge once got to bantering one 
another about trading horses; and it was agreed 
that the next morning at 9 o'clock they should make 
a trade the horses to be unseen up to that hour, 
and no 'backing out, under a forfeiture of $25. 

At the hour appointed the Judge came up, lead- 
ins the sorriest-looking specimen of a horse ever 
seen in those parts. In a few minutes Mr. Lm- 
coln was seen approaching with a wooden saw- 
horse upon his shoulders. Great were the shouts 
and the laughter of the crowd, and both were 
-reatly increased when Mr. Lincoln, on surveying 
the Judge's animal, set down his saw-horse, and 
exclaimed: "Well, Judge, this is the first time I 
ever got the worst of it in a horse trade. 



34 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN AS A MAN OF 
LETTERS ^ 

BY HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE 

From " Warners Library of the World's Best Lit- 
erature." 

Born in 1809 and dying in 1865, Mr. Lincoln was 
the contemporary of every distinguished man of 
letters in America to the close of the war ; but from 
none of them does he appear to have received 
literary impulse or guidance. He might have read, 
if circumstances had been favorable, a large part 
of the work of Irving, Bryant, Poe, Hawthorne, 
Emerson, Lowell, Whittier, Holmes, Longfellow, 
and Thoreau, as it came from the press; but he 
was entirely unfamiliar with it apparently until 
late in his career and it is doubtful if even at that 
period he knew it well or cared greatly for it. He 
was singularly isolated by circumstances and by 
temperament from those influences which usually 
determine, within certain limits, the quality and 
character of a man's style. 

And Mr. Lincoln had a style, — a distinctive, In- 
dividual, characteristic form of expression. In his 
own way he gained an insight into the structure 
of English, and a freedom and skill in the selection 
and combination of words, which not only made him 
the most convincing speaker of his time, but which 
have secured for his speeches a permanent place 

1 By permission of R. S. Peak and J. A. Hill Co, 



A MAN OF LETTERS 35 

In literature. One of those speeches is already 
known wherever the English language is spoken; 
it is a classic by virtue not only of its unique con- 
densation of the sentiment of a tremendous strug- 
gle into the narrow compass of a few brief para- 
graphs, but by virtue of that instinctive felicity of 
style which gives to the largest thought the beauty 
of perfect simplicity. The two Inaugural Ad- 
dresses are touched by the same deep feeling, the 
same large vision, the same clear, expressive and 
persuasive eloquence; and these qualities are found 
in a great number of speeches, from Mr. Lincoln's 
first appearance in public life. In his earliest ex- 
pressions of his political views there is less range; 
but there is the structural order, clearness, sense 
of proportion, ease, and simplicity which give 
classic quality to the later utterances. Few 
speeches have so little of what is commonly re- 
garded as oratorial quality; few have approached 
so constantly the standards and character of litera- 
ture. While a group of men of gift and oppor- 
tunity in the East were giving American literature 
its earliest direction, and putting the stamp of a 
high idealism on its thought and a rare refinement 
of spirit on its form, this lonely, untrained man 
on the old frontier was slowly working his way 
through the hardest and rudest conditions to per- 
haps the foremost place in American history, and 
forming at the same time a style of singular and 
persuasive charm. 

There is, however, no possible excellence with- 
out adequate education ; no possible mastery of any 



36 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

art without thorough training. Mr. Lincoln has 
sometimes been called an accident, and his literary 
gift an unaccountable play of nature ; but few men 
have ever more definitely and persistently worked 
out what was in them by clear intelligence than 
Mr. Lincoln, and no speaker or writer of our time 
has, according to his opportunities, trained himself 
more thoroughly in the use of English prose. Of 
educational opportunity in the scholastic sense, the 
future orator had only the slightest. He went to 
school " by littles/' and these " littles '' put together 
aggregated less than a year ; but he discerned very 
early the practical uses of knowledge, and set him- 
self to acquire it. This pursuit soon became a pas- 
sion, and this deep and irresistible yearning did 
more for him perhaps than richer opportunities 
would have done. It made him a constant student, 
and it taught him the value of fragments of time. 
" He was always at the head of his class," writes 
one of his schoolmates, ** and passed us rapidly in 
his studies. He lost no time at home, and when 
he was not at work was at his books. He kept up 
his studies on Sunday, and carried his books with 
him to work, so that he might read when he rested 
from labor." " I induced my husband to permit 
Abe to read and study at home as well as at school," 
writes his stepmother. " At first he was not easily 
reconciled to it, but finally he too seemed willing 
to encourage him to a certain extent. Abe was a 
dutiful son to me always, and we took particular 
care when he was reading not to disturb him, — 



A MAN OF LETTERS 37 

would let him read on and on until he quit of his 
own accord." 

The books within his reach were few, but they 
were among the best. First and foremost was that 
collection of literature in prose and verse, the Bible : 
a library of sixty-six volumes, presenting nearly 
every literary form, and translated at the fortunate 
moment when the English language had received 
the recent impress of its greatest masters of the 
speech of the imagination. This literature Mr. 
Lincoln knew intimately, familiarly, fruitfully; as 
Shakespeare knew it in an earlier version, and as 
Tennyson knew it and was deeply influenced by it in 
the form in which it entered into and trained Lin- 
coln's imagination. Then there was that wise and 
very human text-book of the knowledge of char- 
acter and life, '' ^sop's Fables " ; that masterpiece 
of clear presentation, *' Robinson Crusoe " ; and 
that classic of pure English, " The Pilgrim's Prog- 
ress." These four books — in the hands of a medi- 
tative boy, who read until the last ember went out 
on the hearth, began again when the earliest light 
reached his bed in the loft of the log cabin, who 
perched himself on a stump, book in hand, at the 
end of every furrow in the plowing season — con- 
tained the elements of a movable university. 

To these must be added many volumes borrowed 
from more fortunate neighbors ; for he had " read 
through every book he had heard of in that coun- 
try, for a circuit of fifty miles." A history of the 
United States and a copy of Weems's '' Life of 



38 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

Washington " laid the foundations of his political 
education. That he read with his imagination as 
well as with his eyes is clear from certain words 
spoken in the Senate Chamber at Trenton in 1861. 
" May I be pardoned," said Mr. Lincoln, " if on 
this occasion I mention that way back in my child- 
hood, the earliest days of my being able to read, I 
got hold of a small book, such a one as few of the 
members have ever seen, — Weems's ' Life of Wash- 
ington.' I remember all the accounts there given 
of the battle-fields and struggles for the liberties 
of the country; and none fixed themselves upon 
my imagination so deeply as the struggle here at 
Trenton, New Jersey. The crossing of the river, 
the contest with the Hessians, the great hardships 
endured at that time, — all fixed themselves on my 
memory more than any single Revolutionary event ; 
and you all know, for you have all been boys, how 
those early impressions last longer than any others." 
" When Abe and I returned to the house from 
work," writes John Hanks, " he would go to the 
cupboard, snatch a piece of corn bread, sit down, 
take a book, cock his legs up as high as his head, 
and read. We grubbed, plowed, weeded, and 
worked together barefooted in the field. When- 
ever Abe had a chance in the field while at work, 
or at the house, he would stop and read." And 
this habit was kept up until Mr. Lincoln had found 
both his life work and his individual expression. 
Later he devoured Shakespeare and Burns ; and the 
poetry of these masters of the dramatic and lyric 
form, sprung Hke himself from the common soil, 



A MAN OF LETTERS 39 

and like him self-trained and directed, furnished a 
kind of running accompaniment to his work and 
his play. What he read he not only held tena- 
ciously, but took into his imagination and incor- 
porated into himself. His familiar talk was en- 
riched with frequent and striking illustrations from 
the Bible and '' ^sop's Fables." 

This passion for knowledge and for companion- 
ship with the great writers would have gone for 
nothing, so far as the boy's training in expression 
was concerned, if he had contented himself with 
acquisition; but he turned everything to account. 
He was as eager for expression as for the material 
of expression ; more eager to write and to talk than 
to read. Bits of paper, stray sheets, even boards 
served his purpose. He was continually transcrib- 
ing with his own hand thoughts or phrases which 
had impressed him. Everything within reach bore 
evidence of his passion for reading, and for writ- 
ing as well. The flat sides of logs, the surface of 
the broad wooden shovel, everything in his vicinity 
which could receive a legible mark, was covered 
with his figures and letters. He was studying ex- 
pression quite as intelligently as he was searching 
for thought. Years afterwards, when asked how 
he had attained such extraordinary clearness of 
style, he recalled his early habit of retaining in his 
memory words or phrases overheard in ordinary 
conversation or met in books and newspapers, until 
night, meditating on them until he got at their 
meaning, and then translating them into his own 
simpler speech. This habit, kept up for years, was 



40 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

the best possible training for the writing of such 
EngHsh as one finds in the Bible and in " The 
Pilgrim's Progress." His self-education in the art 
of expression soon bore fruit in a local reputation 
both as a talker and a writer. His facility in rhyme 
and essay-writing was not only greatly admired by 
his fellows, but awakened great astonishment, be- 
cause these arts were not taught in the neighbor- 
ing schools. 

In speech too he was already disclosing that com- 
mand of the primary and universal elements of 
interest in human intercourse which was to make 
him, later, one of the most entertaining men of his 
time. His power of analyzing a subject so as to 
be able to present it to others with complete clear- 
ness was already disclosing itself. No matter how 
complex a question might be, he did not rest until 
he had reduced it to its simplest terms. When he 
had done this he was not only eager to make it 
clear to others, but to give his presentation fresh- 
ness, variety, attractiveness. He had, in a word, 
the literary sense. " When he appeared in com- 
pany," writes one of his early companions, " the 
boys would gather and cKister around him to hear 
him talk. Mr. Lincoln was figurative in his speech, 
talks and conversation. He argued much from 
analogy, and explained things hard for us to un- 
derstand by stories, maxims, tales and figures. He 
would almost always point his lesson or idea by 
some story that was plain and near to us, that we 
might instantly see the force and bearing of what 
he said." 



A MAN OF LETTERS 41 

In that phrase lies the secret of the closeness of 
Mr. Lincoln's words to his theme and to his listen- 
ers, — one of the qualities of genuine, original ex- 
pression. He fed himself with thought, and he 
trained himself in expression; but his supreme in- 
terest was in the men and women about him, and 
later, in the great questions which agitated them. 
He was in his early manhood when society was 
profoundly moved by searching which could neither 
be silenced nor evaded ; and his lot was cast in a 
section where, as a rule, people read little and talked 
much. Public speech was the chief instrumentality 
of political education and the most potent means 
of persuasion ; but behind the platform, upon which 
Mr. Lincoln was to become a commanding figure, 
were countless private debates carried on at street 
corners, in hotel rooms, by the country road, in 
every place where men met even in the most casual 
way. In these wayside schools Mr. Lincoln prac- 
ticed the art of putting things until he became a 
past-master in debate, both formal and informal. 

If all these circumstances, habits and conditions 
are studied in their entirety, it will be seen that 
Mr. Lincoln's style, so far as its formal qualities 
are concerned, is in no sense accidental or even 
surprising. He was all his early life in the way of 
doing precisely what he did in his later life with 
a skill which had become instinct. He was edu- 
cated, in a very unusual way, to speak for his time 
and to his time with perfect sincerity and simplicity ; 
to feel the moral bearing of the questions which 
w^ere before the country; to discern the principles 



42 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

involved; and to so apply the principles to the 
questions as to clarify and illuminate them. There 
is little difficulty in accounting for the lucidity, 
simplicity, flexibility, and compass of Mr. Lin- 
coln's style; it is not until we turn to its tempera- 
mental and spiritual qualities, to the soul of it, that 
we find ourselves perplexed and baffled. 

But Mr. Lincoln's possession of certain rare 
qualities is in no way more surprising than their 
possession by Shakespeare, Burns, and Whitman. 
We are constantly tempted to look for the sources 
of a man's power in his educational opportunities in- 
stead of in his temperament and inheritance. The 
springs of genius are purified and directed in their 
flow by the processes of training, but they are fed 
from deeper sources. The man of obscure an- 
cestry and rude surroundings is often in closer 
touch with nature, and with those universal ex- 
periences which are the very stuff of literature, 
than the man who is born on the upper reaches of 
social position and opportunity. Mr. Lincoln's an- 
cestry for at least two generations were pioneers 
and frontiersmen, who knew hardship and priva- 
tion, and were immersed in that great wave of 
energy and life which fertilized and humanized the 
central West. They were in touch with those 
original experiences out of which the higher evolu- 
tion of civihzation slowly rises; they knew the soil 
and the sky at first hand; they wrested a meagre 
subsistence out of the stubborn earth by constant 
toil; they shared to the full the vicissitudes and 
weariness of humanity at its elemental tasks. 



A MAN OF LETTERS 43 

It was to this nearness to the heart of a new 
country, perhaps, that Mr. Lincoln owed his inti- 
mate knowledge of his people and his deep and 
beautiful sympathy with them. There was nothing 
sinuous or secondary in his processes of thought: 
they were broad, simple, and homely in the old 
sense of the word. He had rare gifts, but he was 
rooted deep in the soil of the life about him, and 
so completely in touch with it that he divined its 
secrets and used its speech. This vital sympathy 
gave his nature a beautiful gentleness, and suffused 
his thought with a tenderness born of deep compas- 
sion and love. He carried the sorrows of his 
country as truly as he bore its burdens; and when 
he came to speak on the second immortal day at 
Gettysburg, he condensed into a few sentences the 
innermost meaning of the struggle and the victory 
in the life of the nation. It was this deep heart 
of pity and love in him which carried him far be- 
yond the reaches of statesmanship or oratory, and 
gave his words that finality of expression which 
marks the noblest art. 

That there was a deep vein of poetry in Mr. Lin- 
coln's nature is clear to one who reads the story 
of his early life; and this innate idealism, set in 
surroundings so harsh and rude, had something to 
do with his melancholy. The sadness which waS 
mixed with his whole life was, however, largely 
due to his temperament ; in which the final tragedy 
seemed always to be predicted. In that tempera- 
ment too is hidden the secret of the rare quality 
of nature and mind which suffused his public 



44 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

speech and turned so much of it into literature. 
There was humor in it, there was deep human 
sympathy, there was clear mastery of words for the 
use to which he put them ; but there was something 
deeper and more pervasive, — there was the quality 
of his temperament; and temperament is a large part 
of genius. The inner forces of his nature played 
through his thought; and when great occasions 
touched him to the quick, his whole nature shaped 
his speech and gave it clear intelligence, deep feel- 
ing, and that beauty which is distilled out of the 
depths of the sorrows and hopes of the world. He 
was as unlike Burke and Webster, those masters 
of the eloquence of statesmanship, as Burns was 
unlike Milton and Tennyson. Like Burns, he held 
the key of the life of his people ; and through him, 
as through Burns, that life found a voice, vibrating, 
pathetic, and persuasive. 



LINCOLN'S PRESENCE OF BODY 

From " Abe Lincoln's Yarns and Stories " 

On one occasion, Colonel Baker was speaking 
in a court-house, which had been a storehouse, and, 
on making some remarks that were offensive to 
certain political rowdies in the crowd, they cried : 
" Take him off the stand ! " Immediate confusion 
followed, and there was an attempt to carry the 
demand into execution. Directly over the speaker's 
head was an old skylight, at which it appeared Mr. 



A NATIONAL FIGURE 45 

Lincoln had been listening to the speech. In an 
instant, Mr. Lincoln's feet came through the sky- 
light, followed by his tall and sinewy frame, and 
he was standing by Colonel Baker's side. He raised 
his hand, and the assembly subsided into silence. 
" Gentlemen," said Mr. Lincoln, " let us not dis- 
grace the age and country in which we live. This 
is a land where freedom of speech is guaranteed. 
Mr. Baker has a right to speak, and ought to be 
permitted to do so. I am here to protect him, and 
no man shall take him from this stand if I can 
prevent it," 

The suddenness of his appearance, his perfect 
calmness and fairness, and the knowledge that he 
would do what he had promised to do, quieted all 
disturbance, and the speaker concluded his remarks 
without difficulty. 



HOW LINCOLN BECAME A NATIONAL 
FIGURE 

BY IDA M. TARBELL 

From *' The Life of Abraham Lincoln." ^ 

" The greatest speech ever made in Illinois, and 
it puts Lincoln on the track for the Presidency," 
was the comment made by enthusiastic Republicans 
on Lincoln's speech before the Bloomington Con- 
vention. Conscious that it was he who had put 

^ By special permission of the McClure Company. 



46 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

the breath of Hfe into their organization, the party 
instinctively turned to him as its leader. The ef- 
fect of this local recognition was at once percep- 
tible in the national organization. Less than three 
weeks after the delivery of the Bloomington speech, 
the national convention of the Republican party 
met in Philadelphia, June 17, to nominate candi- 
dates for the Presidency and Vice-presidency. Lin- 
coln's name was the second proposed for the latter 
office, and on the first ballot he received one hun- 
dred and ten votes. The news reached him at Ur- 
bana, 111., where he was attending court, one of his 
companions reading from a daily paper just re- 
ceived from Chicago, the result of the ballot. The 
simple name Lincoln was given, without the name 
of the man's State. Lincoln said indifferently that 
he did not suppose it could be himself; and added 
that there was " another great man " of the name 
a man from Massachusetts. The next day, how- 
ever, he knew that it was himself to whom the con- 
vention had given so strong an endorsement. He 
knew also that the ticket chosen was Fremont and 
Dayton. 

The campaign of the following summer and fall 
was one of intense activity for Lincoln. In Illinois 
and the neighboring States he made over fifty 
speeches, only fragments of which have been pre- 
served. One of the first important ones was de- 
livered on July 4, 1856, at a great mass meeting 
at Princeton, the home of the Love joys and the 
Bryants. The people were still irritated by th© 
outrages in Kansas and by the attack on Sumner, 



A NATIONAL FIGURE 47 

in the Senate, and the temptation to dehver a stir- 
ring and indignant oration must have been strong. 
Lincohi's speech was, however, a fine example of 
political wisdom, an historical argument admirably 
calculated to convince his auditors that they were 
right in their opposition to slavery extension, but 
so controlled and sane that it would stir no im- 
pulsive radical to violence. There probably was 
not uttered in the United States on that critical 
4th of July, 1856, when the very foundation of the 
government was in dispute and the day itself 
seemed a mockery, a cooler, more logical speech 
than this by the man who, a month before, had 
driven a convention so nearly mad that the very re- 
porters had forgotten to make notes. And the 
temper of this Princeton speech Lincoln kept 
throughout the campaign. 

In spite of the valiant struggle of the Repub- 
licans, Buchanan was elected; but Lincoln was in 
no way discouraged. The Republicans had polled 
1,341,264 votes in the country. In Illinois, they 
had given Fremont nearly iog,ocx) votes, and they 
had elected their candidate for governor. General 
Bissell. Lincoln turned from arguments to en- 
couragement and good counsel. 

" All of us," he said at a Republican banquet in 
Chicago, a few weeks after the election, '* who did 
not vote for Mr. Buchanan, taken together, are a 
majority of four hundred thousand. But in the 
late contest we were divided between Fremont and 
Fillmore. Can we not come together for the fu- 
ture? Let every one who really believes and is 



i^8 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

resolved that free society is not and shall not be a 
failure, and who can conscientiously declare that 
in the last contest he had done what he thought best 
— let every such one have charity to believe that 
every other one can say as much. Thus let bygones 
be bygones ; let past differences as nothing be ; and 
with steady eye on the real issue let us reinau- 
gurate the good old * central idea ' of the republic. 
We can do it. The human heart is with us; God 
is with us. We shall again be able, not to de- 
clare that ' all States as States are equal,' nor yet 
that ^ all citizens as citizens are equal,' but to re- 
new the broader, better declaration, including both 
these and much more, that ' all men are created 
equal.' " 

The spring of 1857 gave Lincoln a new line of 
argument. Buchanan was scarcely in the Presi- 
dential chair before the Supreme Court, in the de- 
cision of the Dred Scott case, declared that a negro 
could not sue in the United States courts and that 
Congress could not prohibit slavery in the Terri- 
tories. This decision was such an evident ad- 
vance of the slave power that there was a violent 
uproar in the North. Douglas went at once to 
Illinois to calm his constituents. " What," he 
cried, " oppose the Supreme Court ! is it not 
sacred? To resist it is anarchy." 

Lincoln met him fairly on the issue in a speech 
at Springfield in June, 1857. 

" We believe as much as Judge Douglas (per- 
haps more) in obedience to and respect for the 
judicial department of government. . . . But 



A NATIONAL FIGURE 49 

we think the Dred Scott decision is erroneous. We 
know the court that made it has often overruled 
its own decisions, and we shall do what we can to 
have it overrule this. We offer no resistance to 
it. . . . If this important decision had been 
made by the unanimous concurrence of the judges, 
and without any apparent partisan bias, and in ac- 
cordance with legal public expectation and with 
the steady practice of the departments throughout 
our history, and had been in no part based on as- 
sumed historical facts which are not really true ; 
or if, wanting in some of these, it had been before 
the court more than once, and had there been af- 
firmed and reaffirmed through a course of years, it 
then might be, perhaps would be, factious, nay, 
even revolutionary, not to acquiesce in it as a 
precedent. But when, as is true, we find it want- 
ing in all these claims to the public confidence, it 
is not resistance, it is not factious, it is not even 
disrespectful, to treat it as not having yet quite 
established a settled doctrine for the country." 

Let Douglas cry " awful," " anarchy," " revolu- 
tion," as much as he would, Lincoln's arguments 
against the Dred Scott decision appealed to com- 
mon sense and won him commendation all over the 
country. Even the radical leaders of the party in 
the East — Seward, Sumner, Theodore Parker — 
began to notice him, to read his speeches, to con- 
sider his arguments. 

With every month of 1857 Lincoln grew stronger, 
and his election in Illinois as United States sena- 
torial candidate in 1858 against Douglas would have 



50 LINCOLN^S BIRTHDAY 

been insured if Douglas had not suddenly broken 
with Buchanan and his party in a way which won 
him the hearty sympathy and respect of a large 
part of the Republicans of the North. By a fla- 
grantly unfair vote the pro-slavery leaders of Kan- 
sas had secured the adoption of the Lecompton 
Constitution allowing slavery in the State. Presi- 
dent Buchanan urged Congress to admit Kansas 
with her bogus Constitution. Douglas, who would 
not sanction so base an injustice, opposed the meas- 
ure, voting with the Republicans steadily against 
the admission. The Buchananists, outraged at what 
they called " Douglas's apostasy," broke with him. 
Then it was that a part of the Republican party, 
notably Horace Greeley at the head of the New 
York *' Tribune," struck by the boldness and nobil- 
ity of Douglas's opposition, began to hope to win 
him over from the Democrats to the Republicans. 
Their first step was to counsel the leaders of their 
party in Illinois to put up no candidate against 
Douglas for the United States senatorship in 1858. 
Lincoln saw this change on the part of the Re- 
publican leaders with dismay. '* Greeley is not 
doing me right," he said. "... I am a true 
Republican, and have been tried already in the hot- 
test part of the anti-slavery fight; and yet I find 
him taking up Douglas, a veritable dodger, — once 
a tool of the South, now its enemy, — and pushing 
him to the front." He grew so restless over the 
returning popularity of Douglas amng the Repub- 
licans that Herndon, his law-partner, determined 
to go East to find out the real feeling of the East- 



A NATIONAL FIGURE 51 

ern leaders towards Lincoln. Herndon had, for 
a long" time, been in correspondence with the lead- 
ing abolitionists and had no difficulty in getting in- 
terviews. The returns he brought back from his 
canvass were not altogether reassuring. Seward, 
Sumner, Phillips, Garrison, Beecher, Theodore 
Parker, all spoke favorably of Lincoln and Seward 
sent him word that the Republicans would never 
take up so slippery a quantity as Douglas had 
proved himself. But Greeley — the all-important 
Greeley — was lukewarm. " The Republican stand- 
ard is too high," he told Herndon. '' We want 
something practical. . . . Douglas is a brave 
man. Forget the past and sustain the righteous." 
*' Good God, righteous, eh ! " groaned Herndon in 
his letter to Lincoln. 

But though the encouragement which came to 
Lincoln from the East in the spring of 1858 was 
meagre, that which came from Illinois was abun- 
dant. There the Republicans supported him in 
whole-hearted devotion. In June, the State con- 
vention, meeting in Springfield to nominate its 
candidate for Senator, declared that Abraham Lin- 
coln was its first and only choice as the successor 
of Stephen A. Douglas. The press was jubilant. 
" Unanimity is a weak word," wrote the editor of 
the Bloomington " Pantagraph," " to express the 
universal and intense feeling of the convention. 
Lincoln! Lincoln!! LINCOLN!!! was the cry 
everywhere, whenever the senatorship was alluded 
to. Delegates from Chicago and from Cairo, from 
the Wabash and the Illinois, from the north, the 



52 



LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 



center, and the south, were alike fierce with en- 
thusiasm, whenever that loved name was breathed. 
Enemies at home and misjudging friends abroad, 
who have looked for dissension among us on the 
question of the senatorship, will please take notice 
that our nomination is a tmanimous one ; and that, 
in the event of a Republican majority in the next 
Legislature, no other name than Lincoln's will be 
mentioned, or thought of, by a solitary Republican 
legislator. One little incident in the convention 
was a pleasing illustration of the universality of the 
Lincoln sentiment. Cook County had brought a 
banner into the assemblage inscribed, ' Cook County 
for Abraham Lincoln.' During a pause in the pro- 
ceedings, a delegate from another county rose and 
proposed, with the consent of the Cook County 
delegation, * to amend the banner by substituting 
for " Cook County " the word which I hold in my 
hand,' at the same time unrolling a scroll, and re- 
vealing the word * Illinois ' in huge capitals. The 
Cook delegation promptly accepted the amend- 
ment, and amidst a perfect hurricane of hur- 
rahs, the banner was duly altered to express the 
sentiment of the whole Republican party of the 
State, thus : ' Illinois for Abraham Lincoln/ " 

On the evening of the day of his nomination, 
Lincoln addressed his constituents. The first para- 
graph of his speech gave the key to the campaign 
he proposed. " A house divided against itself can- 
not stand. I believe this government cannot en- 
dure permanently half slave and half free. I do 
not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it 



A NATIONAL FIGURE 53 

will cease to be divided. It will become all one 
thing or all the other." 

Then followed the famous charge of conspiracy 
against the slavery advocates, the charge that 
Pierce, Buchanan, Chief Justice Taney, and Doug- 
las had been making a concerted effort to legalize 
the Institution of slavery " in all the States, old 
as well as new, North as well as South." He mar- 
shaled one after another of the measures that the 
pro-slavery leaders had secured in the past four 
years, and clinched the argument by one of his 
inimitable illustrations. 

*' When we see a lot of framed timbers, dif- 
ferent portions of which we know have been got- 
ten out of different times and places and by 
different workmen, — Stephen, Franklin, Roger and 
James,* for Instance, — and we see these timbers 
joined together, and see they exactly make the 
frame of a house or a mill, all the tenons and 
mortises exactly fitting, and all the lengths and 
proportions of the different pieces exactly adapted 
to their respective places, and not a piece too many 
or too few, not omitting even the scaffolding — 
or, if a single piece be lacking, we see the place in 
the frame exactly fitted and prepared yet to bring 
such a piece In — in such a case we find It impos- 
sible not to believe that Stephen and Franklin and 
Roger and James all understood one another from 
the beginning, and all worked upon a common plan 

"^Stephen A. Douglas, Franklin Pierce, Roger Taney ,> 
James Buchanan. 



54 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

or draft, drawn up before the first blow was 
struck." 

The speech was severely criticised by Lincoln's 
friends. It was too radical. It was sectional. 
He heard the complaints unmoved. " If I had to 
draw a pen across my record," he said, one day, 
*' and erase my whole life from sight, and I had 
one poor gift of choice left as to what I should 
save from the wreck, I should choose that speech 
and leave it to the world unerased." 

The speech, was, in fact, one of great political 
adroitness. It forced Douglas to do exactly what 
he did not want to do in Illinois ; explain his own 
record during the past four years ; explain the true 
meaning of the Kansas-Nebraska bill ; discuss the 
Dred Scott decision ; say whether or not he thought 
slavery so good a thing that the country could af- 
ford to extend it instead of confining it where it 
would be in course of gradual extinction. Doug- 
las wanted the Republicans of Illinois to follow 
Greeley's advice : " Forgive the past." He wanted 
to make the most among them of his really noble 
revolt against the attempt of his party to fasten an 
unjust constitution on Kansas. Lincoln would not 
allow him to bask for an instant in the sun of that 
revolt. He crowded him step by step through his 
party's record, and compelled him to face what he 
called the " profound central truth " of the Re- 
publican party, '' slavery is wrong and ought to be 
dealt with as wrong." 

But it was at once evident that Douglas did not 
mean to meet the issue squarely. He called the 



A NATIONAL FIGURE 55 

doctrine of Lincoln's " house-divided-against-it- 
self " speech " sectionalism " ; his charge of con- 
spiracy '' false " ; his talk of the wrong of slavery 
extension " abolitionism." This went on for a 
month. Then Lincoln resolved to force Douglas 
to meet his arguments, and challenged him to a 
series of joint debates. Douglas was not pleased. 
His reply to the challenge was irritable, even 
slightly insolent. To those of his friends who 
talked with him privately of the contest, he said: 
'' I do not feel, between you and me, that I want 
to go into this debate. The whole country knows 
me, and has me measured. Lincoln, as regards 
myself, is comparatively unknown, and if he gets 
the best of this debate, — and I want to say he is 
the ablest man the Republicans have got, — I shall 
lose everything and Lincoln will gain everything. 
Should I win, I shall gain but little. I do not 
want to go into a debate with Abe." Publicly, 
however, he carried off the prospect confidently, 
even jauntily. " Mr. Lincoln," he said patroniz- 
ingly, " is a kind, amiable, intelligent gentleman." 
In the meantime his constituents boasted loudly 
of the fine spectacle they were going to give the 
State —" the Little Giant chawing up Old Abe !" 

Many of Lincoln's friends looked forward to the 
encounter with foreboding. Often, in spite of their 
best intentions, they showed anxiety. " Shortly 
before the first debate came off at Ottawa," says 
Judge H. W. Beckwith of Danville, 111., " I passed 
the Chenery House, then the principal hotel in 
Springfield. The lobby was crowded with partisan 



56 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

leaders from various sections of the State, and Mr. 
Lincoln, from his greater height, was seen above 
the surging mass that clung about him like a swarm 
of bees to their ruler. He looked careworn, but 
he met the crowd patiently and kindly, shaking 
hands, answering questions, and receiving assur- 
ances of support. The day was warm, and at the 
first chance he broke away and came out for a little 
fresh air, wiping the sweat from his face. 

" As he passed the door he saw me, and, taking 
my hand, inquired for the health and views of his 
* friends over in Vermilion County.' He was as- 
sured they were wide awake, and further told that 
they looked forward to the debate between him and 
Senator Douglas with deep concern. From the 
shadow that went quickly over his face, the pained 
look that came to give quickly way to a blaze of 
eyes and quiver of lips, I felt that Mr. Lincoln had 
gone beneath my mere words and caught my inner 
and current fears as to the result. And then, in a 
forgiving, jocular way peculiar to him, he said, ' Sit 
down ; I have a moment to spare and will tell you 
a story.' Having been on his feet for some time, 
he sat on the end of the stone steps leading into 
the hotel door, while I stood closely fronting him. 

" * You have,' he continued, * seen two men about 
to fight?' 

" * Yes, many times.' 

" * Well, one of them brags about what he means 
to do. He jumps high in the air, cracking his heels 
together, smites his fists, and wastes his breath try- 
ing to scare everybody. You see the other fellow, 



A NATIONAL FIGURE 57 

he says not a word,' — here Mr. Lincoln's voice and 
manner changed to great earnestness, and repeat- 
ing — ' you see the other man says not a word. 
His arm.s are at his side, his fists are closely 
doubled up, his head is drawn to the shoulder, and 
his teeth are set firm together. He is saving his 
wind for the fight, and as sure as it comes off he 
will win it, or die a-trying.' 

" He made no other comment, but arose, bade 
me good-by, and left me to apply that illustration." 

It was inevitable that Douglas's friends should 
be sanguine, Lincoln's doubtful. The contrast be- 
tween the two candidates was almost pathetic. 
Senator Douglas was the most brilliant figure in the 
political life of the day. Winning in personality, 
fearless as an advocate, magnetic in eloquence, 
shrewd in political manoeuvring, he had every 
quality to captivate the public. His resources had 
never failed him. From his entrance into Illinois 
politics in 1834, he had been the recipient of every 
political honor his party had to bestow. For the 
past eleven years he had been a member of the 
United States Senate, where he had influenced all 
the important legislation of the day and met in 
debate every strong speaker of North and South. 
In 1852, and again in 1856, he had been a strongly 
supported, though unsuccessful candidate for the 
Democratic Presidential nomination. In 1858 he 
was put at or near the head of every list of possible 
Presidential candidates made up for i860. 

How barren Lincoln's public career in compari- 
son! Three terms in the lower house of the State 



58 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

Assembly, one term in Congress, then a failure 
which drove him from public life. Now he re- 
turns as a bolter from his party, a leader in a new 
organization which the conservatives are denounc- 
ing as " visionary," " impractical," '* revolutionary." 
No one recognized more clearly than Lincoln the 
difference between himself and his opponent. 
" With me," he said, sadly, in comparing the careers 
of himself and Douglas, " the race of ambition has 
been a failure — a flat failure. With him it has 
been one of splendid success." He warned his 
party at the outset that, with himself as a standard- 
bearer, the battle must be fought on principle 
alone, without any of the external aids which 
Douglas's brilliant career gave. " Senator Douglas 
is of world-wide renown," he said ; " All the anxious 
politicians of his party, or who have been of his 
party for years past, have been looking upon him as 
certain, at no distant day, to be the President of 
the United States. They have seen in his round, 
jolly, fruitful face, post-oflices, land-offices, marshal- 
ships, and cabinet appointments, chargeships and 
foreign missions, bursting and sprouting out in 
wonderful exuberance, ready to be laid hold of by 
their greedy hands. And as they have been gaz- 
ing upon this attractive picture so long, they cannot, 
in the little distraction that has taken place in the 
party, bring themselves to give up the charming 
hope; but with greedier anxiety they rush about 
him, sustain him, and give him marches, triumphal 
entries, and receptions beyond what even in the 
days of his highest prosperity they could have 



A NATIONAL FIGURE 59 

brought about in his favor. On the contrary, no- 
body has ever expected me to be President. In 
my poor, lean, lank face, nobody has ever seen 
that any cabbages v^ere sprouting out. These are 
disadvantages, all taken together, that the Re- 
publicans labor under. We have to fight this bat- 
tle upon principle, and upon principle alone." 

If one will take a map of Illinois and locate the 
points of the Lincoln and Douglas debates held be- 
tween August 21 and October 15, 1858, he will 
see that the whole State was traversed in the con- 
test. The first took place at Ottawa, about seventy- 
five miles southwest of Chicago, on August 21 ; the 
second at Freeport, near the Wisconsin boundary, 
on August 27. The third was in the extreme 
southern part of the State, at Jonesboro, on Sep- 
tember 15. Three days later the contestants met 
one hundred and fifty miles northeast of Jones- 
boro, at Charleston. The fifth, sixth, and seventh 
debates were held in the western part of the State ; 
at Galesburg, October 7; Quincy, October 13; and 
Alton, October 15. 

Constant exposure and fatigue were unavoidable 
in meeting these engagements. Both contestants 
spoke almost every day through the intervals be- 
tween the joint debates ; and as railroad communica- 
tion in Illinois in 1858 was still very incomplete, 
they were often obliged to resort to horse, carriage, 
or steamer, to reach the desired points. Judge 
Douglas succeeded, however, in making this difficult 
journey something of a triumphal procession. He 
was accompanied throughout the campaign by his 



6o LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

wife — a beautiful and brilliant woman — and by a 
number of distinguished Democrats. 

On the Illinois Central Railroad he had always 
a special car, sometimes a special train. Fre- 
quently he swept by Lincoln, side-tracked in an 
accommodation or freight train. " The gentleman 
in that car evidently smelt no royalty on our car- 
riage," laughed Lincoln one day, as he watched 
from the caboose of a laid-up freight train the 
decorated special of Douglas flying by. 

It was only when Lincoln left the railroad and 
crossed the prairie at some isolated town, that he 
went in state. The attentions he received were 
often very trying to him. He detested what he 
called " fizzlegigs and fireworks," and would 
squirm in disgust when his friends gave him a 
genuine prairie ovation. Usually, when he was 
going to a point distant from the railway, a " dis- 
tinguished citizen " met him at the station nearest 
the place with a carriage. When they were come 
within two or three miles of the town, a long pro- 
cession with banners and band would appear wind- 
ing across the prairie to meet the speaker. A 
speech of greeting was made, and then the ladies 
of the entertainment committee would present Lin- 
coln with flowers, sometimes even winding a 
garland about his head and lanky figure. His em- 
barrassment at these attentions was thoroughly ap- 
preciated by his friends. At the Ottawa debate 
the enthusiasm of his supporters was so great that 
they insisted on carrying him from the platform to 
the house where he was to be entertained. Power- 



A NATIONAL FIGURE 6i 

less to escape from the clutches of his admirers, he 
could only cry, " Don't, boys ; let me down ; come 
now, don't." But the " boys " persisted, and they 
tell to-day proudly of their exploit and of the 
cordial hand-shake Lincoln, all embarrassed as he 
was, gave each when at last he was free. 

On arrival at the towns where the joint debates 
were held, Douglas was always met by a brass 
band and a salute of thirty-two guns (the Union 
was composed of thirty-two States in 1858), and 
was escorted to the hotel in the finest equipage to 
be had. Lincoln's supporters took delight in show- 
ing their contempt of Douglas's elegance by af- 
fecting a RepubHcan simplicity, often carrying 
their candidate through the streets on a high and 
unadorned hay-rack drawn by farm horses. The 
scenes in the towns on the occasion of the debates 
were perhaps never equalled at any other of the 
hustings of this country. No distance seemed too 
great for the people to go; no vehicle too slow or 
fatiguing. At Charleston there was a great dele- 
gation of men, women and children present which 
had come in a long procession from Indiana by 
farm wagons, afoot, on horseback, and in carriages. 
The crowds at three or four of the debates were 
for that day immense. There were estimated to 
be from eight thousand to fourteen thousand peo- 
ple at Quincy, some six thousand at Alton, from 
ten thousand to fifteen thousand at Charleston, 
some twenty thousand at Ottawa. Many of those 
at Ottawa came the night before. " It was a mat- 
ter of but a short time," says Mr. George Beatty 



62 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

of Ottawa, " until the few hotels, the livery stables, 
and private houses were crowded, and there were 
no accommodations left. Then the campaigners 
spread out about the town, and camped in what- 
ever spot was most convenient. They went along 
the bluff and on the bottom-lands, and that night, 
the camp-fires, spread up and down the valley for 
a mile, made it look as if an army was gathered 
about us." 

When the crowd was massed at the place of the 
debate, the scene was one of the greatest hubbub 
and confusion. On the corners of the squares, and 
scattered around the outskirts of the crowd, were 
fakirs of every description, selling painkillers and 
ague cures, watermelons and lemonade; jugglers 
and beggars plied their trades, and the brass bands 
of all the four corners within twenty-five miles 
tooted and pounded at " Hail Columbia, Happy 
Land," or " Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean." 

Conspicuous in the processions at all the points 
was what Lincoln called the " Basket of Flowers," 
thirty-two young girls in a resplendent car, repre- 
senting the Union. At Charleston, a thirty-third 
young woman rode behind the car, representing 
Kansas. She carried a banner inscribed : " I will 
be free " ; a motto which brought out from nearly 
all the newspaper reporters the comment that she 
was too fair to be long free. 

The mottoes at the different meetings epitomized 
the popular conception of the issues and the candi- 
dates. Among the Lincoln sentiments were: 



A NATIONAL FIGURE 63 

Illinois born under the Ordinance of '87. 

Free Territories and Free Men, 
Free Pulpits and Free Preachers, 

Free Press and a Free Pen, 

Free Schools and Free Teachers. 

" Westward the star of empire takes its way ; 
The girls link on to Lincoln, their mothers were for 
Clay." 

Abe the Giant-Killer. 

Edgar County for the Tall Sucker. 

A striking feature of the crowds was the num- 
ber of women they included. The intelligent and 
lively interest they took in the debates caused much 
comment. No doubt Mrs. Douglas's presence had 
something to do with this. They were particularly 
active in receiving the speakers, and at Quincy, 
Lincoln, on being presented with what the local 
press described as a " beautiful and elegant bou- 
quet," took pains to express his gratification at the 
part women everywhere took in the contest. 

While this helter-skelter outpouring of prairie- 
dom had the appearance of being little more than 
a great jollification, a lawless country fair, in re- 
ality it was with the majority of the people a 
profoundly serious matter. With every discussion 
it became more vital. Indeed, in the first debate, 
which was opened and closed by Douglas, the re- 
lation of the two speakers became dramatic. It 
was here that Douglas hoping to fasten on Lin- 
coln the stigma of " abolitionist," charged him with 



64 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

having undertaken to abolitionize the old Whig 
party, and having been in 1854 a subscriber to a 
radical platform proclaimed at Springfield. This 
platform Douglas read. Lincoln, when he replied, 
could only say he was never at the convention — 
knew nothing of the resolutions ; but the impression 
prevailed that he was cornered. The next issue of 
the Chicago " Press and Tribune '* dispelled it. 
That paper had employed to report the debates the 
first shorthand reporter of Chicago, Mr. Robert L. 
Hitt — now a Member of Congress and the Chair- 
man of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. Mr. 
Hitt, when Douglas began to read the resolutions, 
took an opportunity to rest, supposing he could 
get the original from the speaker. He took down 
only the first line of each resolution. He missed 
Douglas after the debate, but on reaching Chicago, 
where he wrote out his report, he sent an assistant 
to the files to find the platform adopted at the 
Springfield Convention. It was brought, but when 
Mr. Hitt began to transcribe it he saw at once 
that it was widely different from the one Douglas 
had read. There was great excitement in the of- 
fice, and the staff, ardently Republican, went to 
work to discover where the resolutions had come 
from. It was found that they originated at a 
meeting of radical abolitionists with whom Lincoln 
had never been associated. 

The " Press and Tribune " announced the 
" forgery," as it was called in a caustic editorial, 
" The Little Dodger Cornered and Caught." 
Within a week even the remote school-districts of 



A NATIONAL FIGURE 65 

Illinois were discussing Douglas's action, and many 
of the most important papers of the nation had 
made it a subject of editorial comment. 

Almost without exception Douglas was con- 
demned. No amount of explanation on his part 
helped him. ** The particularity of Douglas's 
charge/' said the Louisville " Journal," " precludes 
the idea that he was simply and innocently mis- 
taken." Lovers of fair play were disgusted, and 
those of Douglas's own party who would have ap- 
plauded a trick too clever to be discovered could 
not forgive him for one which had been found out. 
Greeley came out bitterly against him, and before 
long wrote to Lincoln and Herndon that Douglas 
was " like the man's boy who (he said) didn't 
weigh so much as he expected and he always knew 
he wouldn't." 

Douglas's error became a sharp-edged sword in 
Lincoln's hand. Without directly referring to it, 
he called his hearers' attention to the forgery every 
time he quoted a document by his elaborate ex- 
planation that he belived, unless there was some 
mistake on the part of those with whom the mat- 
ter originated and which he had been unable to 
detect, that this was correct. Once when Douglas 
brought forward a document, Lincoln blandly re- 
marked that he could scarcely be blamed for doubt- 
ing its genuineness since the introduction of the 
Springfield resolutions at Ottawa. 

It was in the second debate, at Freeport, that 
Lincoln made the boldest stroke of the contest. 
Soon after the Ottawa debate, in discussing his plan 



^ LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

for the next encounter, with a number of his po- 
Htical friends, — Washburne, Cook, Judd, and 
others, — he told them he proposed to ask Doug- 
las four questions, which he read. One and all 
cried halt at the second question. Under no con- 
dition, they said, must he put it. If it were put, 
Douglas would answer it in such a way as to win 
the senatorship. The morning of the debate, while 
on the way to Freeport, Lincoln read the same 
questions to Mr. Joseph Medill. " I do not like 
this second question, Mr. Lincoln," said Mr. Medill, 
The two men argued to their journey's end, but 
Lincoln was still unconvinced. Even after he 
reached Freeport several Republican leaders came 
to him pleading, " Do not ask that question." He 
was obdurate; and he went on the platform with 
a higher head, a haughtier step than his friends 
had noted in him before. Lincoln was going to 
ruin himself, the committee said despondently; one 
would think he did not want the senatorship. 

The mooted question ran in Lincoln's notes: 
" Can the people of a United States territory in 
any lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of 
the United States, exclude slavery from its limits 
prior to the formation of a State Constitution ? " 
Lincoln had seen the irreconcilableness of Doug- 
las's own measure of popular sovereignty, which 
declared that the people of a territory should be 
left to regulate their domestic concerns in their 
own way subject only to the Constitution, and the 
decision of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott 
case that slaves, being property, could not under 



A NATIONAL FIGURE ^^ 

the Constitution be excluded from a territory. He 
knew that if Douglas said no to this question, his 
Illinois constituents would never return him to the 
Senate. He believed that if he said yes, the people 
of the South would never vote for him for Presi- 
dent of the United States. He was willing him- 
self to lose the senatorship in order to defeat Doug- 
las for the Presidency in i860. " I am after larger 
game; the battle of i860 is worth a hundred of 
this," he said confidently. 

The question was put, and Douglas answered it 
with rare artfulness. *' It matters not," he cried, 
" what way the Supreme Court may hereafter de- 
cide as to the abstract question whether slavery may 
or may not go into a territory under the Constitu- 
tion ; the people have the lawful means to intro- 
duce it or exclude it as they please, for the reason 
that slavery cannot exist a day or an hour anywhere 
unless it is supported by local police regulations. 
Those police regulations can only be established by 
the local legislature, and if the people are opposed 
to slavery, they will elect representatives to that 
body who will, by unfriendly legislation, effectually 
prevent the introduction of it into their midst. If, 
on the contrary, they are for it, their legislature will 
favor its extension." 

His democratic constituents went wild over the 
clever way in which Douglas had escaped Lincoln's 
trap. He now practically had his election. The 
Republicans shook their heads. Lincoln only was 
serene. He alone knew what he had done. The 
Freeport debate had no sooner reached the pro- 



68 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

slavery press than a storm of protest went up. 
Douglas had betrayed the South. He had repudi- 
ated the Supreme Court decision. He had declared 
that slavery could be kept out of the territories by 
other legislation than a State Constitution. '' The 
Freeport doctrine/' or " the theory of unfriendly 
legislation," as it became known, spread month by 
month, and slowly but surely made Douglas an im- 
possible candidate in the South. The force of the 
question was not realized in full by Lincoln's 
friends until the Democratic party met in Charles- 
ton, S. C, in i860, and the Southern delegates re- 
fused to support Douglas because of the answer 
he gave to Lincoln's question in the Freeport de- 
bate of 1858. 

'' Do you recollect the argument we had on the 
way up to Freeport two years ago over the question 
I was going to ask Judge Douglas ? " Lincoln asked 
Mr. Joseph Medill, when the latter went to Spring- 
field a few days after the election of i860. 

'' Yes," said Medill, '' I recollect it very well." 
" Don't you think I was right now ? " 
" We were both right. The question hurt Doug- 
las for the Presidency, but it lost you the senator- 
ship." 

** Yes, and I have won the place he was playing 
for." 

From the beginning of the campaign Lincoln 
supplemented the strength of his arguments by in- 
exhaustible good humor. Douglas, physically worn, 
harassed by the trend which Lincoln had given 



A NATIONAL FIGURE 69 

the discussions, irritated that his adroitness and 
eloquence could not so cover the fundamental truth 
of the Republican position but that it would up 
again, often grew angry, even abusive. Lincoln 
answered him with most effective raillery. At Ha- 
vana, where he spoke the day after Douglas, he 
said: 

'' 1 am informed that my distinguished friend yes- 
terday became a little excited — nervous, perhaps 
— and he said something about fighting, as though 
referring to a pugilistic encounter between him and 
myself. Did anybody in this audience hear him 
use such language? (Cries of *' Yes.") I am in- 
formed further, that somebody in his audience, 
rather more excited and nervous than himself, took 
off his coat, and offered to take the job off Judge 
Douglas's hands, and fight Lincoln himself. Did 
anybody here witness that war-like proceeding? 
(Laughter and cries of " Yes.") Well, I merely 
desire to say that I shall fight neither Judge Doug- 
las nor his second. I shall not do this for two 
reasons, which I will now explain. In the first 
place, a fight would prove nothing which is in issue 
in this contest. It might establish that Judge Doug- 
las is a more muscular man than myself, or it 
might demonstrate that I am a more muscular man 
than Judge Douglas. But this question is not re- 
ferred to in the Cincinnati platform, nor in either 
of the Springfield platforms. Neither result would 
prove him right nor me wrong ; and so of the gen- 
tleman who volunteered to do this fighting for him. 



yo LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

If my fighting Judge Douglas would not prove any- 
thing, it would certainly prove nothing for me to 
fight his bottle-holder. 

" My second reason for not having a personal 
encounter with the judge is, that I don't believe he 
wants it himself. He and I are about the best 
friends in the world, and when we get together he 
would no more think of fighting me than of fight- 
ing his wife. Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, 
when the judge talked about fighting, he was not 
giving vent to any ill feeling of his own, but merely 
trying to excite — well, enthusiasm against me on 
the part of his audience. And as I find he was tol- 
erably successful, we will call it quits." 

More difficult for Lincoln to take good-naturedly 
than threats and hard names was the irrelevant 
matters which Douglas dragged into the debates 
to turn attention from the vital arguments. Thus 
Douglas insisted repeatedly on taunting Lincoln be- 
cause his zealous friends had carried him off the 
platform at Ottawa. " Lincoln was so frightened 
by the questions put to him," said Douglas, " that 
he could not walk." He tried to arouse the preju- 
dice of the audience by absurd charges of abolition- 
ism. Lincoln wanted to give negroes social equal- 
ity ; he wanted a negro wife ; he was willing to 
allow Fred Douglass to make speeches for him. 
Again he took up a good deal of Lincoln's time by 
forcing him to answer to a charge of refusing to 
vote supplies for the soldiers in the Mexican- War. 
Lincoln denied and explained, until at last, at 
Charleston, he turned suddenly to Douglas's sup- 



A NATIONAL FIGURE 71 

porters, dragging one of the strongest of them — 
the Hon. O. B. Ficklin, with whom he had been in 
Congress in 1848 — to the platform. 

" I do not mean to do anything with Mr. Fick- 
Hn/' he said, " except to present his face and tell 
you that he personally knows it to be a lie." And 
Mr. Ficklin had to acknowledge that Lincoln was 
right. 

'* Judge Douglas," said Lincoln in speaking of 
this policy, " is playing cuttlefish — a small species 
of fish that has no mode of defending himself when 
pursued except by throwing out a black fluid which 
makes the water so dark the enemy cannot see it, 
and thus it escapes." 

The question at stake was too serious in Lin- 
coln's judgment, for platform jugglery. Every 
moment of his time which Douglas forced him to 
spend answering irrelevant charges he gave be- 
grudgingly. He struggled constantly to keep his 
speeches on the line of solid argument. Slowly but 
surely those who followed the debates began to 
understand this. It was Douglas who drew the 
great masses to the debates in the first place; it 
was because of him that the public men and the 
newspapers of the East, as well as of the West, 
watched the discussions. But as the days went on 
it was not Douglas who made the impression. 

During the hours of the speeches the two men 
seemed well mated. " I can recall only one fact 
of the debates," says Mrs. William Crotty, of 
Seneca, Illinois, '' that I felt so sorry for Lincoln 
when Douglas was speaking, and then to my sur- 



72 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

prise I felt so sorry for Douglas when Lincoln re- 
plied." The disinterested to whom it was an intel- 
lectual game, felt the power and charm of both 
men. Partisans had each reason enough to cheer. 
It was afterwards, as the debates were talked over 
by auditors as they lingered at the country store or 
were grouped on the fence in the evening, or when 
they were read in the generous reports which the 
newspapers of Illinois and even of other States gave, 
that the thoroughness of Lincoln's argument was 
understood. Even the first debate at Ottawa had a 
surprising effect. " I tell you," says Mr. George 
Beatty of Ottawa, " that debate set people think- 
ing on these important questions in a way they 
hadn't dreamed of. I heard any number of men 
say : * This thing is an awfully serious question, 
and I have about concluded Lincoln has got it 
right.' My father, a thoughtful, God-fearing man, 
said to me, as we went home to supper, * George, 
you are young, and don't see what this thing means, 
as I do. Douglas's speeches of " squatter sover- 
eignty " please you younger men, but I tell you that 
with us older men it's a great question that faces us. 
We've either got to keep slavery back or it's going 
to spread all over the country. That's the real 
question that's behind all this. Lincoln is right.' 
And that was the feeling that prevailed, I think, 
among the majority, after the debate was over. 
People went home talking about the danger of 
slavery getting a hold in the North. This territory 
had been Democratic; La Salle County, the morn- 
ing of the day of the debate, was Democratic; but 



A NATIONAL FIGURE 73 

when the next day came around, hundreds of Dem- 
ocrats had been made Republicans, owing to the 
Hght in which Lincoln had brought forward the 
fact that slavery threatened." 

It was among Lincoln's own friends, however, 
that his speeches produced the deepest impression. 
They had believed him to be strong, but probably 
there was no one of them who had not felt dubious 
about his ability to meet Douglas. Many even 
feared a fiasco. Gradually it began to be clear to 
them that Lincoln was the stronger. Could it be 
that Lincoln really was a great man? The young 
Republican journalists of the *' Press and Trib- 
une"— Scripps, Hitt, Medill — began to ask them- 
selves the question. One evening as they talked 
over Lincoln's argument a letter was received. It 
came from a prominent Eastern statesman. " Who 
is this man that is replying to Douglas in your 
State? " he asked. " Do you realize that no greater 
speeches have been made on public questions in the 
history of our country ; that his knowledge of the 
subject is profound, his logical unanswerable, his 
style inimitable?" Similar letters kept coming 
from various parts of the country. Before the 
campaign was over Lincoln's friends were exultant. 
Their favorite was a great man, "a full-grown 
man," as one of them wrote in his paper. 

The country at large watched Lincoln with as- 
tonishment. When the debates began there were 
Republicans in Illinois of wider national reputa- 
tion. Judge Lyman Trumbull, then Senator; was 
better known. He was an able debater, and a 



74 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

speech which he made in August against Douglas's 
record called from the New York " Evening Post " 
the remark : *' This is the heaviest blow struck at 
Senator Douglas since he took the field in Illinois ; 
it is unanswerable, and we suspect that it will be 
fatal." Trumbull's speech the " Post " afterwards 
published in pamphlet form. Besides Trumbull, 
Owen Love joy, Oglesby, and Palmer were all speak- 
ing. That Lincoln should not only have so far out- 
stripped men of his own party, but should have 
out-argued Douglas, was the cause of comment 
everywhere. " No man of this generation," said the 
**' Evening Post " editorially, at the close of the 
debate, '* has grown more rapidly before the country 
than Lincoln in this canvass." As a matter of 
fact, Lincoln had attracted the attention of all the 
thinking men of the country. ** The first thing that 
really awakened my interest in him," says Henry 
Ward Beecher, " was his speech parallel with 
Douglas in Illinois, and indeed it was that mani- 
festation of ability that secured his nomination to 
the Presidency." 

But able as were Lincoln's arguments, deep as 
was the impression he had made, he was not elected 
to the senatorship. Douglas won fairly enough ; 
though it is well to note that if the Republicans did 
not elect a senator they gained a substantial num- 
ber of votes over those polled in 1856. 

Lincoln accepted the result with a serenity inex- 
plicable to his supporters. To him the contest was 
])ut one battle in a " durable " struggle. Little 
matter who won now, if in the end the right tri- 



A NATIONAL FIGURE 75 

umphed. From the first he had looked at the final 
result — not at the senatorship. " I do not claim, 
gentlemen, to be unselfish," he said at Chicago in 
July. '' I do not pretend that I would not like to 
go to the United States Senate; I make no such 
hypocritical pretense; but I do say to you that in 
this mighty issue, it is nothing to you, nothing to 
the mass of the people of the nation, whether or 
not Judge Douglas or myself shall ever be heard 
of after this night ; it may be a trifle to either of us, 
but in connection with this mighty question, upon 
which hang the destinies of the nation perhaps, it 
is absolutely nothing." 

The intense heat and fury of the debates, the de- 
feat in November, did not alter a jot this high view. 
*' I am glad I made the late race," he wrote Dr. A. 
H. Henry. " It gave me a hearing on the great 
and durable question of the age which I would 
have had in no other way; and though I now sink 
out of view and shall be forgotten, I believe I have 
made some marks which will tell for the cause of 
civil liberty long after I am gone." 

At that date perhaps no one appreciated the value 
of what Lincoln had done as well as he did himself. 
He was absolutely sure he was right and that in 
the end people would see it. Though he might not 
rise, he knew his cause would. 

" Douglas had the ingenuity to be supported in 
the late contest both as the best means to break 
down and to uphold the slave interest," he wrote. 
*'' No ingenuity can keep these antagonistic elements 
in harmony long. Another explosion will soon oc- 



y6 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

cur." His whole attention was given to conserv- 
ing what the Republicans had gained — " We have 
some one hundred and twenty thousand clear Re- 
publican votes. That pile is worth keeping to- 
gether ; " to consoling his friends — " You are feel- 
ing badly/' he wrote to N. B. Judd, Chairman of 
the Republican Committee, " and this too shall pass 
away, never fear " ; to rallying for another ef- 
fort, — *' The cause of civil liberty must not be 
surrendered at the end of one or even one hundred 
defeats." 

If Lincoln had at times a fear that his defeat 
would cause him to be set aside, it soon was dis- 
pelled. The interest awakened in him was genuine, 
and it spread with the wider reading and discus- 
sion of his arguments. He was besieged by letters 
from all parts of the Union, congratulations, en- 
couragements, criticisms. Invitations for lectures 
poured in upon him, and he became the first choice 
of his entire party for political speeches. 

The greater number of these invitations he de- 
clined. He had given so much time to politics since 
1854 that his law practice had been neglected and 
he was feeling poor; but there were certain of the 
calls which could not be resisted. Douglas spoke 
several times for the Democrats of Ohio in the 
1859 campaign for governor and Lincoln naturally 
was asked to reply. He made but two speeches, 
one at Columbus on September 16 and the other at 
Cincinnati on September 17, but he had great audi- 
ences on both occasions. The Columbus speech 
was devoted almost entirely to answering an essay 



A NATIONAL FIGURE ^^ 

by Douglas which had been published in the Sep- 
tember number of ** Harper's Magazine," and 
which began by asserting that — " Under our com- 
plex system of government it is the first duty of 
American statesmen to mark distinctly the divid- 
ing-line between Federal and Local authority." It 
was an elaborate argument for '' popular sover- 
eignty'^ and attracted national attention. In- 
deed, at the moment it was the talk of the country. 
Lincoln literally tore it to bits. 

^* What is Judge Douglas's popular sovereignty? " 
he asked. *' It is, as a principle, no other than that 
if one man chooses to make a slave of another man, 
neither that other man nor anybody else has a 
right to object. Applied in government, as he 
seeks to apply it, it is this: If, in a new territory 
into which a few people are beginning to enter for 
the purpose of making their homes, they choose 
to either exclude from their limits or to establish 
it there, however one or the other may affect the 
persons to be enslaved, or the infinitely greater 
number of persons who are afterward to inhabit 
that territory, or the other members of the fami- 
lies, or communities, of which they are but an in- 
cipient member, or the general head of the family 
of States as parent of all — however their action 
may affect one or the other of these, there is no 
power or right to interfere. That is Douglas's 
popular sovereignty applied." 

. It was in this address that Lincoln uttered the 
oft-quoted paragraphs : 

" I suppose the institution of slavery really looks 



yB> LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

small to him. He is so put up by nature that a 
lash upon his back would hurt him, but a lash upon 
anybody else's back does not hurt him. That is 
the build of the man, and consequently he looks 
upon the matter of slavery in this unimportant 
light. 

" Judge Douglas ought to remember, when he is 
endeavoring to force this policy upon the Ameri- 
can people, that while he is put tip in that way, a 
good many are not. He ought to remember that 
there was once in this country a man by the name 
of Thomas Jefferson, supposed to be a Democrat — 
a man whose principles and policy are not very 
prevalent amongst Democrats to-day, it is true ; 
but that man did not exactly take this view of the 
insignificance of the element of slavery which our 
friend Judge Douglas does. In contemplation of 
this thing, we all know he was led to exclaim, ' I 
tremble for my country when I remember that 
Go'd is just ! ' We know how he looked upon it 
when he thus expressed himself. There was dan- 
ger to this country, danger of the avenging justice 
of God, in that little unimportant popular sover- 
eignty question of Judge Douglas. He supposed 
there was a question of God's eternal justice 
wrapped up in the enslaving of any race of men, 
or any man, and that those who did so braved the 
arm of Jehovah — that when a nation thus dared 
the Almighty, every friend of that nation had cause 
to dread his wrath. Choose ye between Jefferson 
and Douglas as to what is the true view of this 
element among us." 



A NATIONAL FIGURE 79 

One interesting point about the Columbus ad- 
dress is that in it appears the germ of the Cooper 
Institute speech deHvered five months later in New 
York City. 

Lincoln made so deep an impression in Ohio by 
his speeches that the State Republican Committee 
asked permission to publish them together with 
the Lincoln-Douglas Debates as campaign docu- 
ments in the Presidential election of the next year. 

In December he yielded to the persuasion of his 
Kansas political friends and delivered five lectures 
in that State, only fragments of which have been 
preserved. 

Unquestionably the most effective piece of work 
he did that winter was the address at Cooper In- 
stitute, New York, on February 2.J. He had re- 
ceived an invitation in the fall of 1859 to lecture 
at Plymouth Church, Brooklyn. To his friends it 
was evident that he was greatly pleased by the 
compliment, but that he feared that he was not 
equal to an Eastern audience. After some hesita- 
tion he accepted, provided they would take a politi- 
cal speech if he could find time to get up no other. 
When he reached New York he found that he was 
to speak there instead of Brooklyn, and that he was 
certain to have a distinguished audience. Fear- 
ful lest he was not as well prepared as he ought to 
be, conscious, too, no doubt, that he had a great 
opportunity before him, he spent nearly all of the 
two days and a half before his lecture in revising 
his matter and in familiarizing himself with it. 
In order that he might be sure that he was heard 



8o LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

he arranged with his friend, Mason Brayman, who 
had come on to New York with him, to sit in the 
back of the hall and in case he did not speak loud 
enough to raise his high hat on a cane. 

Mr. Lincoln's audience was a notable one even 
for New York. It included William Cullen Bryant, 
who introduced him; Horace Greeley, David Dud- 
ley Field, and many more well known men of the 
day. It is doubtful if there were any persons pres- 
ent, even his best friends, who expected that Lin- 
coln would do more than interest his hearers by his 
sound arguments. Many have confessed since that 
they feared his queer manner and quaint speeches 
would amuse people so much that they would fail to 
catch the weight of his logic. But to the surprise of 
everybody Lincoln impressed his audience from the 
start by his dignity and his seriousness. '* His 
manner was, to a New York audience, a very 
strange one, but it was captivating," wrote an audi- 
tor. " He held the vast meeting spellbound, and 
as one by one his oddly expressed but trenchant 
and convincing arguments confirmed the soundness 
of his political conclusions, the house broke out in 
wild and prolonged enthusiasm. I think I never 
saw an audience more thoroughly carried away by 
an orator." 

The Cooper Union speech was founded on a 
sentence from one of Douglas's Ohio speeches : — 
" Our fathers when they framed the government 
under which we live understood this question just 
as well, and even better, than we do now." 
Douglas claimed that the " fathers " held that the 



A NATIONAL FIGURE 8i 

Constitution forbade the Federal government con- 
trolling slavery in the Territories. Lincoln with in- 
finite care had investigated the opinions and votes 
of each of the " fathers " — whom he took to be 
the thirty-nine men who signed the Constitution — 
and showed conclusively that a majority of them 
" certainly understood that no proper division of 
local from Federal authority nor any part of the 
Constitution forbade the Federal government to 
control slavery in the Federal Territories." Not 
only did he show this of the thirty-nine framers of 
the original Constitution, but he defied anybody 
to show that one of the seventy-six members of the 
Congress which framed the amendments to the 
Constitution ever held any such view. 

" Let us," he said, " who believe that * our fath- 
ers who framed the government under which we 
live understood this question just as well, and even 
better, than we do now,' speak as they spoke, and 
act as they acted upon it. This is all Republicans 
ask — all Republicans desire — in relation to 
slavery. As those fathers marked it, so let it be 
again marked, as an evil not to be extended, but to 
be tolerated and protected only because of and so 
far as its actual presence among us makes that 
toleration and protection a necessity. Let all the 
guaranties those fathers gave it be not grudgingly, 
but fully and fairly, maintained. For this Republi- 
cans contend, and with this, so far as I know or 
believe, they will be content." 

One after another he took up and replied to the 
charges the South was making against the North 



S2 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

at the moment : — Sectionalism, radicalism, giving 
undue prominence to the slave question, stirring up 
insurrection among slaves, refusing tO' allow consti- 
tutional rights, and to each he had an unimpas- 
sioned answer inpregnable with facts. 

The discourse was ended with what Lincoln felt 
to be a precise statement of the opinion of the 
question on both sides, and of the duty of the Re- 
publican party under the circumstances. This por- 
tion of his address is one of the finest early ex- 
amples of that simple and convincing style in which 
most of his later public documents were written. 

" If slavery is right," he said, " all words, acts, 
laws, and constitutions against it are themselves 
wrong, and should be silenced and swept away. 
If it is right, we cannot justly object to its nation- 
ality — its universality ; if it is wrong, they cannot 
justly insist upon its extension — its enlargement. 
All they ask we could readily grant, if we thought 
slavery right; all we ask they could as readily 
grant, if they thought it wrong. Their thinking 
it right and our thinking it wrong is the precise 
fact upon which depends the whole controversy. 
Thinking it right, as they do, they are not to blame 
for desiring its full recognition as being right ; but 
thinking it wrong, as we do, can we yield to them ? 
Can we cast our votes with their views, and against 
our own ? In view of our moral, social, and polit- 
ical responsibilities, can we do this ? 

*' Wrong, as we think slavery is, we can yet af- 
ford to let it alone where it is, because that much is 
due to the necessity arising from its actual pres- 



A NATIONAL FIGURE 83 

ence in the nation ; but can we, while our votes will 
prevent it, allow it to spread into the national Ter- 
ritories, and to overrun us here in these free States ? 
If our sense of duty forbids this, then let us stand 
by our duty fearlessly and effectively. Let us be 
diverted by none of those sophistical contrivances 
wherewith we are so industriously plied and bela- 
bored — contrivances such as groping for some 
middle ground between right and wrong: vain as 
the search for a man who should be neither a living 
man nor a dead man ; such as a policy of * don't 
care ' on a question about which all true men do 
care ; such as Union appeals beseeching true Union 
men to yield to Disunionists, reversing the divine 
rule, and calling, not the sinners, but the righteous 
to repentance; such as invocations to Washington, 
imploring men to unsay what Washington said and 
undo what Washington did. 

*• Neither let us be slandered from our duty by 
false accusations against us, nor frightened from it 
by menaces of destruction to the government, nor 
of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that 
right makes might, and in that faith let us to the 
end dare to do our duty as we understand it." 

From New York Lincoln went to New Hamp- 
shire to visit his son Robert, then at Phillips Exeter 
Academy. His coming was known only a short 
time before he arrived and hurried arrangements 
were made for him to speak at Concord, Manches- 
ter, Exeter and Dover. At Concord the address 
was made in the afternoon on only a few hours' 
notice; nevertheless, he had a great audience, so 



84 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

eager were men at the time to hear anybody who 
had serious arguments on the slavery question. 
Something of the impression Lincohi made in New 
Hampshire may be gathered from the following 
article, " Mr. Lincoln in New Hampshire," which 
appeared in the Boston " Atlas and Bee " for 
March 5 : 

The Concord " Statesman " says that notwith- 
standing the rain of Thursday, rendering travelling 
very inconvenient, the largest hall in that city was 
crowded to hear Mr. Lincoln. The editor says 
it was one of the most powerful, logical and com- 
pacted speeches to which it was ever our fortune 
to listen; an argument against the system of slav- 
ery, and in defence of the position of the Republi- 
can party, from the deductions of which no reason- 
able man could possibly escape. He fortified every 
position assumed, by proofs which it is impossible 
to gainsay ; and while his speech was at intervals 
enlivened by remarks which elicited applause at the 
expense of the Democratic party, there was, never- 
theless, not a single word which tended to impair 
the dignity of the speaker, or weaken the force of 
the great truths he uttered. 

The " Statesman '* adds that the address " was 
perfect and was closed by a peroration which 
brought his audience to their feet. We are not ex- 
travagant in the remark, that a political speech of 
greater power has rarely if ever been uttered in 
the Capital of New Hampshire. At its conclusion 
nine roof-raising cheers were given; three for the 



A NATIONAL FIGURE 85 

speaker, three for the Republicans of IlHnois, and 
three for the RepubHcans of New Hampshire." 

On the same evening Mr. Lincoln spoke at Man- 
chester, to an immense gathering in Smyth's Hall. 
The *' Mirror," a neutral paper, gives the following 
enthusiastic notice of his speech : " The audience 
was a flattering one to the reputation of the speaker. 
It was composed of persons of all sorts of political 
notions, earnest to hear one whose fame was so 
great, and we think most of them went away think- 
ing better of him than they anticipated they should. 
He spoke an hour and a half with great fairness, 
great apparent candor, and with wonderful interest. 
He did not abuse the South, the Administration, or 
the Democrats, or indulge in any personalities, with 
the solitary exception of a few hits at Douglas's 
notions. He is far from prepossessing in personal 
appearance, and his voice is disagreeable, and yet 
he wins your attention and good will from the 
start. 

" He Indulges in no flowers of rhetoric, no elo- 
quent passages; he is not a wit, a humorist or a 
clown ; yet, so great a vein of pleasantry and good 
nature pervades what he says, gliding over a deep 
current of practical argument, he keeps his hearers 
in a smiling good mood with their mouths open 
ready to swallow all he says. His sense of the 
ludicrous is very keen, and an exhibition of that is 
the clincher of all his arguments ; not the ludicrous 
acts of persons, but ludicrous ideas. Hence he is 
never offensive, and steals away willingly into his 



86 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

train of belief, persons who are opposed to him. 
For the first half hour his opponents would agree 
with every word he uttered, and from that point he 
began to lead them off, little by little, cunningly, till 
it seemed as if he had got them all into his fold. 
He displays more shrewdness, more knowledge of 
the masses of mankind than any public speaker we 
have heard since long Jim Wilson left for Cali- 
fornia." 

From New Hampshire Lincoln went to Connecti- 
cut, where on March 5 he spoke at Hartford, on 
March 6 at New Haven, on March 8 at Woon- 
socket, on March 9 at Norwich. There are no re- 
ports of the New Hampshire speeches, but two 
of the Connecticut speeches were published in part 
and one in full. Their effect was very similar, ac- 
cording to the newspapers of the day, to that in 
New Hampshire, described by the " Atlas and 
Bee." 

By his debates with Douglas and the speeches in 
Ohio, Kansas, New York and New England, Lin- 
coln had become a national figure in the minds of 
all the political leaders of the country, and of the 
thinking men of the North. Never in the history 
of the United States had a man become prominent 
in a more logical and intelligent way. At the be- 
ginning of the struggle against the repeal of the 
Missouri Compromise in 1854, Abraham Lincoln 
was scarcely known outside of his own State. Even 
most of the men whom he had met in his brief term 
in Congress had forgotten him. Yet in four years 
lie had become one of the central figures of his 



A NATIONAL FIGURE 87 

party ; and now, by worsting the greatest orator and 
politician of his time, he had drawn the eyes of the 
nation to him. 

It had been a long road he had travelled to make 
himself a national figure. Twenty-eight years be- 
fore he had deliberately entered politics. He had 
been beaten, but had persisted; he had succeeded 
and failed; he had abandoned the struggle and 
returned to his profession. His outraged sense of 
justice had driven him back, and for six years he 
had travelled up and down Illinois trying to prove 
to men that slavery extension was wrong. It was 
by no one speech, by no one argument that he had 
wrought. Every day his ceaseless study and pon- 
dering gave him new matter, and every speech he 
made was fresh. He could not repeat an old 
speech, he said, because the subject enlarged and 
widened so in his mind as he went on that it was 
" easier to make a new one than an old one." He 
had never yielded in his campaign to tricks of ora- 
tory — never played on emotions. He had been 
so strong in his convictions of the right of his case 
that his speeches had been arguments pure and 
simple. Their elegance was that of a demonstra- 
tion in Euclid. They persuaded because they 
proved. He had never for a moment counted per- 
sonal ambition before the cause. To insure an ar- 
dent opponent of the Kansas-Nebraska bill in the 
United States Senate, he had at one time given 
up his chance for the senatorship. To show the 
fallacy of Douglas's argument, he had asked a 
question which his party pleaded with him to pass 



88 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

by, assuring him that it would lose him the elec- 
tion. In every step of this six years he had been 
disinterested, calm, unyielding, and courageous. 
He knew he was right, and could afford to wait. 
*' The result is not doubtful," he told his friends. 
" We shall not fail — if we stand firm. We shall 
not fail. Wise counsels may accelerate or mistakes 
delay it ; but, sooner or later, the victory is sure to 
come." 

The country, amazed at the rare moral and in- 
tellectual character of Lincoln, began to ask ques- 
tions about him, and then his history came out ; a 
pioneer home, little schooling, few books, hard labor 
at all the many trades of the frontiersman, a pro- 
fession mastered o' nights by the light of a friendly 
cooper's fire, an early entry into politics and law — 
and then twenty-five years of incessant poverty and 
struggle. 

The homely story gave a touch of mystery to the 
figure which loomed so large. Men felt a sudden 
reverence for a mind and heart developed to these 
noble proportions in so unfriendly a habitat. They 
turned instinctively to one so familiar with strife 
for help in solving the desperate problem with 
which the nation had grappled. And thus it was 
that, at fifty years of age, Lincoln became a na- 
tional figure. 



LOVE FOR LITTLE ONES 89 



LINCOLN'S LOVE FOR THE LITTLE ONES 

Soon after his election as President and while 
visiting Chicago, one evening at a social gather- 
ing Mr. Lincoln saw a little girl timidly approach- 
ing him. He at once called her to him, and asked 
the little girl what she wished. 

She replied that she wanted his name. 

Mr. Lincoln looked back into the room and said : 
" But here are other little girls — they would feel 
badly if I should give my name only to you." 

The little girl replied that there were eight of 
them in all. 

" Then," said Mr. Lincoln, " get me eight sheets 
of paper, and a pen and ink, and I will see what I 
can do for you." 

The paper was brought, and Mr. Lincoln sat 
down in the crowded drawing-room, and wrote a 
sentence upon each sheet, appending his name ; and 
thus every little girl carried off her souvenir. 

During the same visit and while giving a recep- 
tion at one of the hotels, a fond father took in a 
little boy by the hand who was anxious to see the 
new President. The moment the child entered the 
parlor door he, of his own accord and quite to the 
surprise of his father, took off his hat, and, giv- 
ing it a swing, cried : " Hurrah for Lincoln ! " 
There was a crowd, but as soon as Mr. Lincoln 
could get hold of the little fellow, he lifted him in 



90 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

his hands, and, tossing him towards the ceiHng, 
laughingly shouted : " Hurrah for you ! " 

It was evidently a refreshing incident to Lincoln 
in the dreary work of hand-shaking. 



HOW LINCOLN TOOK HIS ALTITUDE 

Soon after Mr. Lincoln's nomination for the 
Presidency, the Executive Chamber, a large fine 
room in the State House at Springfield, was set 
apart for him, where he met the public until after 
his election. 

As illustrative of the nature of many of his calls, 
the following brace of incidents were related to 
Mr. Holland by an eye witness : " Mr. Lincoln, 
being seated in conversation with a gentleman one 
day, two raw, plainly-dressed young * Suckers ' en- 
tered the room, and bashfully lingered near the 
door. As soon as he observed them, and appre- 
hended their embarrassment, he rose and walked to 
them, saying, * How do you do, my good fellows ? 
What can I do for you ? Will you sit down ? * 
The spokesman of the pair, the shorter of the two, 
declined to sit, and explained the object of the 
call thus: he had had a talk about the relative 
height of Mr. Lincoln and his companion, and had 
asserted his belief that they were of exactly the 
same height. He had come in to verify his judg- 
ment. Mr. Lincoln smiled, went and got his cane, 
and, placing the end of it upon the wall, said: 



HIS ALTITUDE 91 

** * Here, young man, come under here/ 
" The young man came under the cane, as Mr. 
Lincoln held it, and when it was perfectly adjusted 
to his height, Mr. Lincoln said : 

" * Now, come out, and hold up the cane.' 
" This he did while Mr. Lincoln stepped under. 
Rubbing his head back and forth to see that it 
worked easily under the measurement, he stepped 
out, and declared to the sagacious fellow who was 
curiously looking on, that he had guessed with re- 
markable accuracy — that he and the young man 
were exactly the same height. Then he shook 
hands with them and sent them on their way. Mr. 
Lincoln would just as soon have thought of cutting 
off his right hand as he would have thought of 
turning those boys away with the impression that 
they had in any way insulted his dignity." 



IV 

IN THE WHITE HOUSE 



J 



HOW LINCOLN WAS ABUSED 

With the possible exception of President Wash- 
ington, whose political opjx^nents did not hesitate 
to rob the vocabulary of vulgarity and wickedness 
whenever they desired to vilify the Chief Magis- 
trate, Lincoln was the most and '* best " abused 
man who ever held office in the United States. 
During the first half of his initial term there was 
no epithet which was not applied to him. 

One newspaper in New York habitually character- 
ized him as " that hideous baboon at the other end 
of the avenue," and declared that " Barnum should 
buy and exhibit him as a zoological curriosity." 

Although the President did not, to all appear- 
ances, exhibit annoyance because of the various 
diatribes printed and spoken, yet the fact is that 
his life was so cruelly embittered by these and other 
expressions quite as virulent, that he often declared 
to those most intimate with him, " I would rather 
be dead than, as President, be thus abused in the 
house of my friends.'' 



95 



96 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 



SONNET IN 1862 

BY JOHN JAMES PIATT 

Stern be the Pilot in the dreadful hour 
When a great nation, like a ship at sea 
With the wroth breakers whitening at her lee, 

Feels her last shudder if her Helmsman cower; 

A godlike manhood be his mighty dower ! 
Such and so gifted, Lincoln, may'st thou be 
With thy high wisdom's low simplicity 

And awful tenderness of voted power: 

From our hot records then thy name shall stand 
On Time's calm ledger out of passionate 
days — 

With the pure debt of gratitude begun. 
And only paid in never-ending praise — 

One of the many of a mighty Land, 

Made by God's providence the Anointed One. 



LINCOLN THE PRESIDENT 

BY JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL 

From the Essay in " My Study Windows " 

Never did a President enter upon office with 
less means at his command, outside his own strength 
of heart and steadiness of understanding, for in- 

^ By permission of Houghton, MiiHin & Company. 



LINCOLN THE PRESIDENT 97 

spiring confidence in the people, and so winning it 
for himself, than Mr. Lincoln. All that was known 
to him was that he was a good stump-speaker, nomi- 
nated for his availability — that is, because he had 
no history — and chosen by a party with whose 
more extreme opinions he was not in sympathy. 
It might well be feared that a man past fifty, 
against whom the ingenuity of hostile partisans 
could rake up no accusation, must be lacking in 
manliness of character, in decision of principle, in 
strength of will ; that a man who was at best only 
the representative of a party, and who yet did not 
fairly represent even that, would fail of poHtical, 
much more of popular, support. And certainly 
no one ever entered upon office with so few re- 
sources of power in the past, and so many materials 
of weakness in the present, as Mr. Lincoln. Even 
in that half of the Union which acknowledged him 
as President, there was a large, and at that time 
dangerous minority, that hardly admitted his claim 
to the office, and even in the party that elected him 
there was also a large minority that suspected him 
of being secretly a communicant with the church of 
Laodicea. All that he did was sure to be viru- 
lently attacked as ultra by one side ; all that he left 
undone, to be stigmatized as proof of lukewarmness 
and backsliding by the other. Meanwhile he was 
to carry on a truly colossal war by means of both ; 
he was to disengage the country from diplomatic 
entanglements of unprecedented peril undisturbed 
by the help or the hindrance of either, and to win 
from the crowning dangers of his administration. 



98 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

in the confidence of the people, the means of his 
safety and their own. He has contrived to do it, 
and perhaps none of our Presidents since Wash- 
ington has stood so firm in the confidence of the 
people as he does after three years of stormy ad- 
ministration. 

Mr. Lincoln's policy was a tentative one, and 
rightly so. He laid down no programme which 
must compel him to be either inconsistent or un- 
wise, no cast-iron theorem to which circumstances 
must be fitted as they rose, or else be useless to 
his ends. He seemed to have chosen Mazarin's 
motto, Le temps et moi. The moi, to be sure, was 
not very prominent at first ; but it has grown more 
and more so, till the world is beginning to be per- 
suaded that it stands for a character of marked in- 
dividuality and capacity for affairs. Time was his 
prime-minister, and, we began to think, at one 
period, his general-in-chief also. At first he was 
so slow that he tired out all those who see no evi- 
dence of progress but in blowing up the engine ; 
then he was so fast, that he took the breath away 
from those who think there is no getting on safely 
while there is a spark of fire under the boilers. 
God is the only being who has time enough; but 
a prudent man, who knows how to seize occasion, 
can commonly make a shift to find as much as he 
needs. Mr. Lincoln, as it seems to us in review- 
ing his career, though we have sometimes in our 
impatience thought otherwise, has always waited, 
as a wise man should, till llie right moment brought 



LINCOLN THE PRESIDENT 99 

up all his reserves. Semper nocuit differre paratis, 
is a sound axiom, but the really efficacious man 
will also be sure to know when he is not ready, 
and be firm against all persuasion and reproach till 
he is. 

One would be apt to think, from some of the 
criticisms made on Mr. Lincoln's course by those 
who mainly agree with him in principle, that the 
chief object of a statesman should be rather to pro- 
claim his adhesion to certain doctrines, than to 
achieve their triumph by quietly accomplishing his 
ends. In our opinion, there is no more unsafe poli- 
tician than a conscientiously rigid doctrinaire, noth- 
ing more sure to end in disaster than a theoretic 
scheme of policy that admits of no pliability for 
contingencies. True, there is a popular image of 
an impossible He, in whose plastic hands the sub- 
missive destinies of mankind become as wax, and 
to whose commanding necessity the toughest facts 
yield with the graceful pliancy of fiction; but in 
real life we commonly find that the men who control 
circumstances, as it is called, are those who have 
learned to allow for the influence of their eddies, 
and have the nerve to turn them to account at the 
happy instant. Mr. Lincoln's perilous task has been 
to carry a rather shaky raft through the rapids, 
making fast the unrulier logs as he could snatch 
opportunity, and the country is to be congratulated 
that he did not think it his duty to run straight at 
all hazards, but cautiously to assure himself with 
his setting-pole where the main current was, and 



100 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

keep steadily to that. He is still in wild water, but 
we have faith that his skill and sureness of eye will 
bring him out right at last. 

A curious, and, as we think, not inapt parallel, 
might be drawn between Mr. Lincoln and one of 
the most striking figures in modern history — 
Henry IV. of France. The career of the latter 
may be more picturesque, as that of a daring cap- 
tain always is; but in all its vicissitudes there is 
nothing more romantic than that sudden change, 
as by a rub of Aladdin's lamp, from the attorney's 
office in a country town of Illinois to the helm of a 
great nation in times like these. The analogy be- 
tween the characters and circumstances of the two 
men is in many respects singularly close. Succeed- 
ing to a rebellion rather than a crown, Henry's 
chief material dependence was the Huguenot party, 
whose doctrines sat upon him with a looseness dis- 
tasteful certainly, if not suspicious, to the more 
fanatical among them. King only in name over the 
greater part of France, and with his capital barred 
against him, it yet gradually became clear to the 
more far-seeing even of the Catholic party that he 
was the only center of order and legitimate author- 
ity round which France could reorganize itself. 
While preachers who held the divine right of kings 
made the churches of Paris ring with declamations 
in favor of democracy rather than submit to the 
heretic dog of a Bearnois — much as our soi-disant 
Democrats have lately been preaching the divine 
right of slavery, and denouncing the heresies of the 
Declaration of Independence — Henry bore both 



LINCOLN THE PRESIDENT loi 

parties in hand till he was convinced that only one 
course of action could possibly combine his own in- 
terests and those of France. Meanwhile the Prot- 
estants believed somewhat doubtfully that he was 
theirs, the Catholics hoped somewhat doubtfully 
that he would be theirs, and Henry himself turned 
aside remonstrance, advice, and curiosity alike with 
a jest or a proverb (if a little high, he liked them 
none the worse), joking continually as his manner 
was. We have seen Mr. Lincoln contemptuously 
compared to Sancho Panza by persons incapable of 
appreciating one of the deepest pieces of wisdom 
in the profoundest romance ever written; namely, 
that, while Don Quixote was incomparable in theo- 
retic and ideal statesmanship, Sancho, with his 
stock of proverbs, the ready money of human ex- 
perience, made the best possible practical governor. 
Henry IV. was as full of wise saws and modern in- 
stances as Mr. Lincoln, but beneath all this was the 
thoughtful, practical, humane, and thoroughly earn- 
est man, around whom the fragments of France 
were to gather themselves till she took her place 
again as a planet of the first magnitude in the 
European system. In one respect Mr. Lincoln was 
more fortunate than Henry. However some may 
think him wanting in zeal, the most fanatical can 
find no taint of apostasy in any measure of his, nor 
can the most bitter charge him with being influ- 
enced by motives of personal interest. The lead- 
ing distinction between the policies of the two is 
one of circumstances. Henry went over to the 
nation; Mr. Lincoln has steadily drawn the nation 



102 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

over to him. One left a united France ; the other, 
we hope and beheve, will leave a reunited America. 
We leave our readers to trace the further points of 
difference and resemblance for themselves, merely 
suggesting a general similarity which has often oc- 
curred to us. One only point of melancholy in- 
terest we will allow ourselves to touch upon. That 
Mr. Lincoln is not handsome nor elegant, we learn 
from certain English tourists who would consider 
similar revelations in regard to Queen Victoria as 
thoroughly American in their want of hienscance. 
It is no concern of ours, nor does it affect his fit- 
ness for the high place he so worthily occupies ; 
but he is certainly as fortunate as Henry in the 
matter of good looks, if we may trust contemporary 
evidence. Mr. Lincoln has also been reproached 
with Americanism by some not unfriendly British 
critics; but, with all deference, we cannot say that 
we like him any the worse for it, or see in it any 
reason why he should govern Americans the less 
wisely. 

People of more sensitive organizations may be 
shocked, but we are glad that in this our true war 
of independence, which is to free us forever from 
the Old World, we have had at the head of our 
affairs a man whom America made as God made 
Adam, out of the very earth, unancestried, un- 
privileged, unknown, to show us how much truth, 
how much magnanimity, and how much statecraft 
await the call of opportunity in simple manhood 
when it believes in the justice of God and the worth 
of man. Conventionalities are all very well in their 



LINCOLN THE PRESIDENT 103 

proper place, but they shrivel at the touch of nature 
like stubble in the fire. The genius that sways a 
nation by its arbitrary will seems less august to us 
than that which multiplies and reinforces itself in 
the instincts and convictions of an entire people. 
Autocracy may have something in it more melo- 
dramatic than this, but falls far short of it in hu- 
man value and interest. 

Experience would have bred in us a rooted dis- 
trust of improvised statesmanship, even if we did 
not believe politics to be a science, which, if it can- 
not always command men of special aptitude and 
great powers, at least demands the long and steady 
application of the best powers of such men as it 
can command to master even its first principles. 
It is curious, that, in a country which boasts of its 
intelligence, the theory should be so generally held 
that the most complicated of human contrivances, 
and one which every day becomes more compli- 
cated, can be worked at sight by any man able to 
talk for an hour or two without stopping to think. 

Mr. Lincoln is sometimes claimed as an example 
of a ready-made ruier. But no case could well be 
less in point; for, besides that he was a man of 
such fair-mindedness as is always the raw material 
of wisdom, he had in his profession a training pre- 
cisely the opposite of that to which a partisan is 
subjected. His experience as a lawyer compelled 
him not only to see that there is a principle un- 
derlying every phenomenon in human affairs, but 
that there are always two sides to every question, 
both of which must be fully understood in order 



I04 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

to understand either, and that it is of greater ad- 
vantage to an advocate to appreciate the strength 
than the weakness of his antagonist's position. 
Nothing is more remarkable than the unerring tact 
with which, in his debate with Mr. Douglas, he 
went straight to the reason of the question; nor 
have we ever had a more striking lesson in political 
tactics than the fact, that, opposed to a man ex- 
ceptionally adroit in using popular prejudice and 
bigotry to his purpose, exceptionally unscrupu- 
lous in appealing to those baser motives that turn 
a meeting of citizens into a mob of barbarians, he 
should yet have won his case before a jury of the 
people. Mr. Lincoln was as far as possible from 
an impromptu politician. His wisdom was made 
up of a knowledge of things as well as of men; 
his sagacity resulted from a clear perception and 
honest acknowledgment of difficulties, which 
enabled him to see that the only durable triumph 
of political opinion is based, not on any abstract 
right, but upon so much of justice, the highest at- 
tainable at any given moment in human affairs, 
as may be had in the balance of mutual concession. 
Doubtless he had an ideal, but it was the ideal of 
a practical statesman — to aim at the best, and to 
take the next best, if he is lucky enough to get 
even that. His slow, but singularly masculine intel- 
ligence taught him that precedent is only another 
name for embodied experience, and that it counts 
for even more in the guidance of communities of 
men than in that of the individual life. He was not 
a man who held it good public economy to pull 



LINCOLN THE PRESIDENT 105 

down on the mere chance of rebuilding better. Mr. 
Lincoln's faith in God was qualified by a very well- 
founded distrust of the wisdom of man. Perhaps 
it was his want of self-confidence that more than 
anything else won him the unlimited confidence of 
the people, for they felt that there would be no 
need of retreat from any position he had deliber- 
ately taken. The cautious, but steady, advance of 
his policy during the war was like that of a Roman 
army. He left behind him a firm road on which 
public confidence could follow ; he took America 
with him where he went ; what he gained he oc- 
cupied, and his advanced posts became colonies. 
The very homeliness of his genius was its distinc- 
tion. His kingship was conspicuous by its work- 
day homespun. Never was ruler so absolute as he, 
nor so little conscious of it; for he was the incar- 
nate common-sense of the people. With all that 
tenderness of nature whose sweet sadness touched 
whoever saw him with something of its own pathos, 
there was no trace of sentimentalism in his speech or 
action. He seems to have had but one rule of con- 
duct, always that of practical and successful poli- 
tics, to let himself be guided by events, when they 
were sure to bring him out where he wished to go, 
though by what seemed to unpractical minds, which 
let go the possible to grasp at the desirable, a longer 
road. 

No higher compliment was ever paid to a na- 
tion than the simple confidence, the fireside plain- 
ness, with which Mr. Lincoln always addresses him- 



io6 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

self to the reason of the American people. This 
was, indeed, a true democrat, who grounded him- 
self on the assumption that a democracy can think. 
" Come, let us reason together about this matter," 
has been the tone of all his addresses to the people ; 
and accordingly we have never had a chief magis- 
trate who so won to himself the love and at the 
same time the judgment of his countrymen. To 
us, that simple confidence of his in the right-mind- 
edness of his fellow-men is very touching, and its 
success is as strong an argument as we have ever 
seen in favor of the theory that men can govern 
themselves. He never appeals to any vulgar senti- 
ment, he never alludes to the humbleness of his 
origin; it probably never occurred to him, indeed 
that there was anything higher to start from than 
manhood ; and he put himself on a level with those 
he addressed, not by going down to them, but only 
by taking it for granted that they had brains and 
would come up to a common ground of reason. In 
an article lately printed in " The Nation," Mr. 
Bayard Taylor mentions the striking fact, that in 
the foulest dens of the Five Points he found the 
portrait of Lincoln. The wretched population that 
makes its hive there threw all its votes and more 
against him, and yet paid this instinctive tribute to 
the sweet humanity of his nature. Their ignorance 
sold its vote and took its money, but all that was 
left of manhood in them recognized its saint and 
martyr. 

Mr. Lincoln is not in the habit of saying, " This 
is my opinion, or my theory," but, " This is the 



LINCOLN THE PRESIDENT 107 

conclusion to which, in my judgment, the time has 
come, and to which, accordingly the sooner we 
come the better for us." His policy has been the 
policy of public opinion based on adequate discus- 
sion and on a timely recognition of the influence of 
passing events in shaping the features of events 
to come. 

One secret of Mr. Lincoln's remarkable suc- 
cess in captivating the popular mind is undoubtedly 
an unconsciousness of self which enables him, 
though under the necessity of constantly using the 
capital I, to do it without any suggestion of ego- 
tism. There is no single vowel which men's mouths 
can pronounce with such difference of effect. That 
which one shall hide away, as it were, behind the 
substance of his discourse, or, if he bring it to the 
front, shall use merely to give an agreeable ac- 
cent of individuality to what he says, another shall 
make an offensive challenge to the self-satisfaction 
of all his hearers, and an unwarranted intrusion 
upon each man's sense of personal importance, ir- 
ritating every pore of his vanity, like a dry north- 
east wind, to a goose-flesh of opposition and hos- 
tility. Mr. Lincoln has never studied Quintilian ; 
but he has, in the earnest simplicity and unaffected 
Americanism of his own character, one art of or- 
atory worth all the rest. He forgets himself so 
entirely in his object as to give his I the sympa- 
thetic and persuasive effect of We with the great 
body of his countrymen. Homely, dispassionate, 
showing all the rough-edged process of his thought 
as it goes along, yet arriving at his conclusions with 



io8 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

an honest kind of every-day logic, he is so 
eminently our representative man, that, when he 
speaks, it seems as if the people were listening to 
their own thinking aloud. The dignity of his 
thought owes nothing to any ceremonial garb of 
words, but to the manly movement that comes of 
settled purpose and an energy of reason that knows 
not what rhetoric means. There has been nothing 
of Cleon, still less of Strepsiades striving to under- 
bid him in demagogism, to be found in the publi^ 
utterances of Mr. Lincoln. He has always ad- ^) 
dressed the intelligence of men, never their preju- "^ 
dice, their passion, or their ignorance. 



On the day of his death, this simple Western 
attorney, who according to one party was a vulgar 
joker, and whom the doctrinaires among his own 
supporters accused of wanting every element of 
statesmanship, was the most absolute ruler in 
Christendom, and this solely by the hold his good- 
humored sagacity had laid on the hearts and un- 
derstandings of his countrymen. Nor was this all, 
for it appeared that he had drawn the great ma- 
jority, not only of his fellow-citizens, but of man- 
kind, also, to his side. So strong and so persuasive 
is honest manliness without a single quality of 
romance or unreal sentiment to help it ! A civilian 
during times of the most captivating military 
achievement, awkward, with no skill in the lower 
technicalities of manners, he left behind him a fame 
beyond that of any conqueror, the memory of a 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 109 

grace higher than that of outward person, and of 
gentlemanhness deeper than mere breeding. Never 
before that startled April morning did such mul- 
titudes of men shed tears for the death of one 
they had never seen, as if with him a friendly 
presence had been taken away from their lives, 
leaving them colder and darker. Never was 
funeral panegyric so eloquent as the silent look of 
sympathy which strangers exchanged when they 
met on that day. Their common manhood had lost 
a kinsman. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
January First, Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-Three 

BY FRANK MOORE 

Stand like an anvil, when 'tis beaten 

With the full vigor of the smith's right arm ! 
Stand like the noble oak-tree, when 'tis eaten 

By the Saperda and his ravenous swarm! 
For many smiths will strike the ringing blows 
Ere the red drama now enacting close; 
And human insects, gnawing at thy fame. 
Conspire to bring thy honored head to shame. 

Stand like the firmament, upholden 
By an invisible but Almighty hand! 

He whomsoever JUSTICE doth embolden. 
Unshaken, unseduced, unawed shall stand. 



no LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

Invisible support is mightier far. 
With noble aims, than walls of granite are ; 
And simple consciousness of justice gives 
Strength to a purpose while that purpose lives. 

Stand like the rock that looks defiant 

Far o'er the surging seas that lash its form ! 
Composed, determined, watchful, self-reliant, 

Be master of thyself, and rule the storm! 
And thou shalt soon behold the bow of peace 
Span the broad heavens, and the wild tumult 

cease ; 
And see the billows, with the clouds that meet, 
Subdued and calm, come crouching to thy feet. 



THE PROCLAMATION^ 

BY JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER 

Saint Patrick, slave to Milcho of the herds 
Of Ballymena, sleeping, heard these words: 

" Arise, and flee 
Out from the land of bondage, and be free ! " 

Glad as a soul in pain, who hears from heaven 
The angels singing of his sins forgiven. 

And, wondering, sees 
His prison opening to their golden keys, 
He rose a Man who laid him down a Slave, 
Shook from his locks the ashes of the grave, 

"^ By special permission of Messrs. Houghton, MiMin 
& Company, 



THE PROCLAMATION in 

And onward trod 
Into the glorious liberty of God. 

He cast the symbols of his shame away; 
And passing where the sleeping Milcho lay, 

Though back and limb 
Smarted with wrong, he prayed, " God pardon 
him ! " 

So went he forth: but in God's time he came 
To light on Uilline's hills a holy flame; 

And, dying, gave 
The land a Saint that lost him as a Slave. 

O, dark, sad millions, patiently and dumb 
Waiting for God, your hour, at last, has come, 

And Freedom's song 
Breaks the long silence of your night of wrong! 

Arise, and flee ! shake off the vile restraint 
Of ages! but, like Ballymena's saint, 

The oppressor spare. 
Heap only on his head the coals of prayer. 

Go forth, like him! like him return again, 
To bless the land whereon, in bitter pain, 

Ye toiled at first. 
And heal with Freedom what your Slavery cursed. 



112 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 



THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION 

From the address delivered before Congress on Febru- 
ary t2, 1878, presenting to the re-United States, on behalf 
of Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson, Carpenter's painting — The 
First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation before 
the Cabinet. 

BY JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD 

Let US pause to consider the actors in that scene. 
In force of character, in thoroughness and breadth 
of culture, in experience of public affairs, and in 
national reputation, the Cabinet that sat around that 
council-board has had no superior, perhaps no 
equal in our history. Seward, the finished scholar, 
the consummate orator, the great leader of the 
Senate, had come to crown his career with those 
achievements which placed him in the first rank of 
modern diplomatists. Chase, with a culture and a 
fame of massive grandeur, stood as the rock and 
pillar of the public credit, the noble embodiment of 
the public faith. Stanton was there, a very Titan 
of strength, the great organizer of victory. Em- 
inent lawyers, men of business, leaders of states 
and leaders of men, completed the group. 

But the man who presided over that council, 
who inspired and guided its deliberations, was a 
character so unique that he stood alone, without 
a model in history or a parallel among men. Born 



THE EMANCIPATION 113 

on this day, sixty-nine years ago, to an inheritance 
of extremest poverty; surrounded by the rude 
forces of the wilderness ; wholly unaided by par- 
ents ; only one year in any school ; never, for a day, 
master of his own time until he reached his ma- 
jority; making his way to the profession of the 
law by the hardest and roughest road; — yet by 
force of unconquerable will and persistent, patient 
work he attained a foremost place in his profession, 

" And, moving up from high to higher. 
Became on Fortune's crowning slope 
The pillar of a people's hope, 
The centre of a world's desire." 

At first, it was the prevailing belief that he 
would be only the nominal head of his administra- 
tion, — that its policy would be directed by the em- 
inent statesmen he had called to his council. How 
erroneous this opinion was may be seen from a 
single incident. 

Among the earliest, most difficult, and most 
delicate duties of his administration was the ad- 
justment of our relations with Great Britain. 
Serious complications, even hostilities, were ap- 
prehended. On the 2ist of May, 1861, the Sec- 
retary of State presented to the President his 
draught of a letter of instructions to Minister 
Adams, in which the position of the United States 
and the attitude of Great Britain were set forth 
with the clearness and force which long experience 
and great ability had placed at the command of the 
Secretary. Upon almost every page of tha;t 



114 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

original draught are erasures, additions, and mar- 
ginal notes in the handwriting of Abraham Lincoln, 
which exhibit a sagacity, a breadth of wisdom, and 
a comprehension of the whole subject, impossible to 
be found except in a man of the very first order. 
And these modifications of a great state paper were 
made by a man who but three months before had 
entered for the first time the wide theatre of 
Executive action. 

Gifted with an insight and a foresight which 
the ancients would have called divination, he saw, 
in the midst of darkness and obscurity, the logic of 
events, and forecast the result. From the first, in 
his own quaint, original way, without ostentation 
or offense to his associates, he was pilot and com- 
mander of his administration. He was one of the 
few great rulers whose wisdom increased with his 
power, and whose spirit grew gentler and tenderer 
as his triumphs were multiplied. 

This was the man, and these his associates, who 
look down upon us from the canvas. 

The present is not a fitting occasion to examine, 
with any completeness, the causes that led to the 
Proclamation of Emancipation ; but the peculiar re- 
lation of that act to the character of Abraham Lin- 
coln cannot be understood, without considering one 
remarkable fact in his history. His earlier years 
were passed in a region remote from the centers 
of political thought, and without access to the great 
world of books. But the few books that came 
within his reach he devoured with the divine hunger 
of genius. One paper, above all others, led him 



THE EMANCIPATION 115 

captive, and filled his spirit with the majesty of its 
truth and the sublimity of its eloquence. It was 
the Declaration of American Independence. The 
author and the signers of that instrument became, 
in his early youth, the heroes of his political wor- 
ship. I doubt if history affords any example of a 
life so early, so deeply, and so permanently influ- 
enced by a single political truth, as was Abraham 
Lincoln's by the central doctrine of the Declaration, 
— the liberty and equality of all men. Long before 
his fame had become national he said, " That is 
the electric cord in the Declaration, that links the 
hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together, 
and that will link such hearts as long as the love 
of freedom exists in the minds of men throughout 
the world." 

That truth runs, like a thread of gold, through 
the whole web of his political life. It was the 
spear-point of his logic in his debates with Douglas. 
It was the inspiring theme of his remarkable speech 
at the Cooper Institute, New York, in i860, which 
gave him the nomination to the Presidency. It 
filled him with reverent awe when on his way to the 
capital to enter the shadows of the terrible conflict 
then impending, he uttered, in Independence Hall, 
at Philadelphia, these remarkable words, which 
were prophecy then but are history now : — 

" I have never had a feeling, politically, that did 
not spring from the sentiments embodied in the 
Declaration of Independence. I have often pon- 
dered over the dangers which were incurred by the 
men who assembled here, and framed and adopted 



Ii6 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

that Declaration of Independence. I have pondered 
over the toils that were endured by the officers and 
soldiers of the army who achieved that independence 
I have often inquired of myself what great prin- 
ciple or idea it was that kept this confederacy so 
long together. It was not the mere matter of the 
separation of the Colonies from the mother land, 
but that sentiment in the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence which gave liberty, not alone to the 
people of this country, but, I hope, to the world for 
all future time. It was that which gave promise 
that, in due time, the weight would be lifted from 
the shoulders of all men. This is the sentiment 
embodied in the Declaration of Independence. 
Now, my friends, can this country be saved upon 
that basis? If it can, I will consider myself one 
of the happiest men in the world if I can help to 
save it. If it cannot be saved upon that principle, 
it will be truly awful. But if this country cannot 
be saved without giving up that principle, I was 
about to say, I would rather be assassinated on this 
spot than surrender it." 

Deep and strong was his devotion to liberty ; yet 
deeper and stronger still was his devotion to the 
Union; for he believed that without the Union 
permanent liberty for either race on this continent 
would be impossible. And because of this belief, 
he was reluctant, perhaps more reluctant than most 
of his associates, to strike slavery with the sword. 
For many months, the passionate appeals of mil- 
lions of his associates semed not to move him. He 
listened to all the phases of the discussion, and 



THE EMANCIPATION 117 

stated, in language clearer and stronger than any 
opponent had used, the dangers, the difficulties, 
and the possible futility of the act. In reference to 
its practical wisdom, Congress, the Cabinet and 
the country were divided. Several of his generals 
had proclaimed the freedom of slaves within the 
limits of their commands. The President revoked 
their proclamations. His first Secretary of War 
had inserted a paragraph in his annual report ad- 
vocating a similar policy. The President sup- 
pressed it. 

On the 19th of August, 1862, Horace Greeley 
published a letter, addressed to the President, en- 
titled *' The Prayer of Twenty Millions," in which 
he said, '' On the face of this wide earth, Mr. Presi- 
dent, there is not one disinterested, determined, in- 
telligent champion of the Union cause who does 
not feel that all attempts to put down the rebellion 
and at the same time uphold its inciting cause are 
preposterous and futile." 

To this the President responded in that ever- 
memorable reply of August 22, in which he said : — 

" If there be those who would not save the Union 
unless they could at the same time save slavery, I 
do not agree with them. 

"If there be those who would not save the Union 
unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, 
I do not agree with them. 

" My paramount object is to save the Union, and 
not either to save or to destroy slavery. 

" If I could save the Union without freeing any 
slave, I would do it. If I could save it by freeing 



ii8 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

all the slaves, I would do it, — and if I could do 
it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would 
also do that. 

" What I do about slavery and the colored race, 
I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; 
and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not 
believe it would help to save the Union. I shall 
do less whenever I shall believe that what I am 
doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more when- 
ever I believe doing more will help the cause." 

Thus, against all importunities on the one hand 
and remonstrances on the other, he took the mighty 
question to his own heart, and, during the long 
months of that terrible battle-summer, wrestled 
with it alone. But at length he realized the saving 
truth, that great, unsettled questions have no pity 
for the repose of nations. On the 22nd of Sep- 
tember, he summoned his Cabinet to announce his 
conclusion. It was my good fortune, on that same 
day, and a few hours after the meeting, to hear, 
from the lips of one who participated, the story of 
the scene. As the chiefs of the Executive Depart- 
ments came in, one by one, they found the Presi- 
dent reading a favorite chapter from a popular 
humorist. He was lightening the weight of the 
great burden which rested upon his spirit. He 
finished the chapter, reading it aloud. And here 
I quote, from the published Journal of the late Chief 
Justice, an entry, written immediately after the 
meeting, and bearing unmistakable evidence that 
it is almost a literal transcript of Lincoln's words. 

"The President then took a graver tone, and 



THE EMANCIPATION 119 

said : * Gentlemen, I have, as you are aware, 
thought a great deal about the relation of this war 
to slavery; and you all remember that, several 
weeks ago, I read to you an order I had prepared 
upon the subject, which, on account of objections 
made by some of you, was not issued. Ever since 
then my mind has been much occupied with this 
subject, and I have thought all along that the time 
for acting on it might probably come. I think the 
time has come now. I wish it was a better time. 
I wish that we were in a better condition. The 
action of the arm}^ against the rebels has not been 
quite what I should have best liked. But they 
have been driven out of Maryland, and Pennsyl- 
vania is no longer in danger of invasion. When 
the rebel army was at Frederick, I determined as 
soon as it should be driven out of Maryland to 
issue a proclamation of emancipation, such as I 
thought most likely to be useful. I said nothing 
to any one, but I made a promise to myself and 
(hesitating a little) to my Maker. The rebel army 
is now driven out, and I am going to fulfil that 
promise. I have got you together to hear what 
I have written down. I do not wish your advice 
about the main matter, for that I have determined 
for myself. This I say without intending anything 
but respect for any one of you. But I already 
know the views of each on this question. They 
have been heretofore expressed, and I have con- 
sidered them as thoroughly and carefully as I 
can. What I have written is that which my re- 
flections have determined me to say. If there is 



120 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

anything in the expressions I use, or in any minor 
matter which any one of you thinks had best be 
changed, I shall be glad to receive your sugges- 
tions. One other observation I will make. I 
know very well that many others might, in this 
matter as in others, do better than I can; and if 
I was satisfied that the public confidence was more 
fully possessed by any one of them than by me, and 
knew of any constitutional way in which he could 
be put in my place, he should have it. I would 
gladly yield it to him. But though I believe I 
have not so much of the confidence of the people 
as I had some time since, I do not know that, all 
things considered, any other person has more ; and, 
however this may be, there is no way in which I 
can have any other man put where I am. I must 
do the best I can and bear the responsibility of 
taking the course which I feel I ought to take.' 

" The President then proceeded to read his 
Emancipation Proclamation, making remarks on 
the several parts as he went on, and showing that 
he had fully considered the subject in all the lights 
under which it had been presented to him." 

The Proclamation was amended in a few mat- 
ters of detail. It was signed and published that 
day. The world knows the rest, and will not for- 
get it till " the last syllable of recorded time." 



THE EMANCIPATION GROUP 121 
THE EMANCIPATION GROUP ^ 

BY JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER 

Moses Kimball, a citizen of Boston, presented to the 
city a duplicate of the Freedman's Memorial Statue 
erected in Lincoln Square, Washington, after a design 
by Thomas Ball. The group, which stands in Park 
Square, represents the figure of a slave, from whose 
limbs the broken fetters have fallen, kneeling in grati- 
tude at the feet of Lincoln. The verses which follow 
were written for the unveiling of the statue, Decem- 
ber 9, 1879. 

Amidst thy sacred effigies 

If old renown give place, 
O city, Freedom-loved! to his 

Whose hand unchained a race 

Take the worn frame, that rested not 

Save in a martyr's grave; 
The care-lined face, that none forgot. 

Bent to the kneeling slave. 

Let man be free ! The mighty word 
He spake was not his own; 

An impulse from the Highest stirred 
These chiselled lips alone. 

The cloudy sign, the fiery guide. 
Along his pathway ran, 

"^By special permission of Messrs. Houghton, MifHin 
& Company, 



122 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

And Nature, through his voice, denied 
The ownership of man. 

We rest in peace where these sad eyes 
Saw peril, strife, and pain ; 

His was the nation's sacrifice, 
And ours the priceless gain. 

O symbol of God's will on earth 

As it is done above! 
Bear witness to the cost and worth 
Of justice and of love. 

Stand in thy place and testify 

To coming ages long, 
That truth is stronger than a lie. 

And righteousness than wrong. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S CHRISTMAS GIFT^' 

BY NORA PERRY 

'Twas in eighteen hundred and sixty-four, 
That terrible year when the shock and roar 
Of the nation's battles shook the land. 
And the fire leapt up into fury fanned. 

The passionate, patriotic fire. 
With its throbbing pulse and its wild desire 
To conquer and win, or conquer and die, 
In the thick of the fight when hearts beat high 

1 By permission of Houghton, MiMin & Company, 



LINCOLN'S CHRISTMAS GIFT 123 

With the hero's thrill to do and to dare, 
'Twixt the bullet's rush and the muttered prayer. 
In the North, and the East and the great North- 
west, 
Men waited and watched with eager zest 

For news of the desperate, terrible strife, — 
For a nation's death or a nation's life; 
While over the wires there flying sped 
News of the wounded, the dying and dead. 

Defeat and defeat! Ah! what was the fault 
Of the grand old army's sturdy assault 
At Richmond's gates ? " in a querulous key 
Men questioned at last impatiently. 

As the hours crept by, and day by day 
They watched the Potomac Army at bay. 
Defeat and defeat! It was here, just here, 
In the very height of the fret and fear, 

Click, click! across the electric wire 

Came suddenly flashing words of fire. 

And a great shout broke from city and town 

At the news of Sherman's marching down, — 

Marching down on his way to the sea 
Through the Georgia swamps to victory. 
Faster and faster the great news came, 
Flashing along like tongues of flame, — 

McAlHster ours! And then, ah! then, 
To that patientest, tenderest, noblest of men. 
This message from Sherman came flying swift, — 
I send you Savannah for a Christmas gift ! " 



V 
DEATH OF LINCOLN 



O CAPTAIN ! MY CAPTAIN ! ^ 

BY WALT WHITMAN 

O Captain ! my Captain ! our fearful trip is done, 
The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we 

sought is won, 
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all 

exulting, 
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim 
and daring; 

But O heart! heart! heart! 
O the bleeding drops of red, 

Where on the deck my Captain lies, 
Fallen cold and dead. 

O Captain ! my Captain ! rise up and hear the bells ; 
Rise up — for you the flag is flung — for you the 

bugle trills, 
For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths — for you 

the shores a-crowding, 
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager 
faces turning; 

Here Captain ! dear father ! 
This arm beneath your head! 

It is some dream that on the deck, 
You've fallen cold and dead. 

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and 

still, 
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse 

nor will, 

1 By permission of David McKay. 
127 



128 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage 

closed and done, 
From fearful trip the victor ship conies in with 
object won; 

Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells ! 
But I with mournful tread, 

Walk the deck my Captain lies, 
Fallen cold and dead. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S DEATH — A DE- 
SCRIPTION OF THE SCENE AT 
FORD'S THEATRE ^ 

WALT WHITMAN 

The day (April 14, 1865) seems to have been 
a pleasant one throughout the whole land — the 
moral atmosphere pleasant, too — the long storm, 
so dark, so fratricidal, full of blood and doubt and 
gloom, over and ended at last by the sunrise of 
such an absolute National victory, and utter break- 
ing down of secessionism — we almost doubted 
our senses ! Lee had capitulated beneath the apple 
tree at Appomattox. The other armies, the flanges 
of the revolt, swiftly followed. 

And could it really be, then? Out of all the af- 
fairs of this world of woe and passion, of failure 
and disorder and dismay, was there really come 

^ By permission of David McKay. 



DEATH OF LINCOLN 129 

the confirmed, unerring sign of peace, like a shaft 
of pure Hght — of rightful rule — of God? 

But I must not dwell on accessories. The deed 
hastens. The popular afternoon paper, the little 
Evening Star, had scattered all over its third page, 
divided among the advertisements in a sensational 
manner in a hundred different places : *' The 
President and his lady will be at the theatre this 
evening." Lincoln was fond of the theatre. I 
have myself seen him there several times. I re- 
member thinking how funny it was that he, in some 
respects the leading actor in the greatest and storm- 
iest drama known to real history's stage through 
centuries, should sit there and be so completely in- 
terested in those human jack-straws, moving about 
with their silly little gestures, foreign spirit, and 
flatulent text. 

So the day, as I say, was propitious. Early herb- 
age, early flowers, were out. I remembered where 
I was stopping at the time, the season being ad- 
vanced, there were many lilacs in full bloom. By 
one of those caprices that enter and give tinge to 
events without being at all a part of them, I find 
myself always reminded of the great tragedy of 
that day by the sight and odor of these blossoms. 
It never fails. 

On this occasion the theatre was crowded, many 
ladies in rich and gay costumes, officers in their 
uniforms, many well-known citizens, young folks, 
the usual clusters of gas-lights, the usual mag- 
netism of so many people, cheerful, with perfumes, 
music of violins and flutes — and over all, and 



130 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

saturating, that vast, vague wonder. Victory, the 
Nation's victory, the triumph of the Union, filHng 
the air, the thought, the sense, with exhilaration 
more than all perfumes. 

The President came betimes and, with his wife, 
witnessed the play, from the large stage boxes of 
the second tier, two thrown into one, and pro- 
fusely draped with the National flag. The acts 
and scenes of the piece — one of those singularly 
witless compositions which have at least the merit 
of giving entire relief to an audience engaged in 
mental action or business excitements and cares 
during the day, as it makes not the slightest call 
on either the moral, emotional, esthetic or spiritual 
nature — a piece (''Our American Cousin") m 
which, among other characters so called, a Yankee, 
certainly such a one as was never seen, or at least 
ever seen in North America, is introduced in 
England, with a varied fol-de-rol of talk, plot, 
scenery, and such phantasmagoria as goes to make 
up a modern popular drama — had progressed 
through perhaps a couple of its acts, when in the 
midst of this comedy, or tragedy, or non-such, or 
whatever it is to be called, and to offset it, or finish 
it out, as if in Nature's and the Great Muse's mock- 
ery of these poor mimics, come interpolated that 
scene, not really or exactly to be described at all 
(for on the many hundreds who were there it 
seems to this hour to have left little but a passing 
blur, a dream, a blotch) — and yet partially to be 
described as I now proceed to give it: 

There is a scene in the play representing the 



DEATH OF LINCOLN 131 

modern parlor, in which two unprecedented Eng- 
lish ladies are informed by the unprecedented and 
impossible Yankee that he is not a man of fortune, 
and therefore undesirable for marriage catching 
purposes ; after which, the comments being finished, 
the dramatic trio make exit, leaving the stage clear 
for a moment. There was a pause, a hush, as it 
were. At this period came the murder of Abraham 
Lincoln. Great as that was, with all its manifold 
train circling around it, and stretching into the fu- 
ture for many a century, in the politics, history, art, 
etc., of the New World, in point of fact, the main 
thing, the actual murder, transpired with the quiet 
and simplicity of any commonest occurrence — the 
bursting of a bud or pod in the growth of vegeta- 
tion, for instance. 

Through the general hum following the stage 
pause, with the change of positions, etc., came the 
muffled sound of a pistol shot, which not one- 
hundredth part of the audience heard at the time 
— and yet a moment's hush — somehow, surely 
a vague, startled thrill — and then, through the 
ornamented, draperied, starred, and striped space- 
way of the President's box, a sudden figure, a man, 
raises himself with hands and feet, stands a mo- 
ment on the railing, leaps below to the stage (a 
distance of perhaps 14 or 15 feet), falls out of 
position, catching his boot heel in the copious dra- 
pery (the American flag), falls on one knee, quickly 
recovers himself, rises as if nothing had happened 
(he really sprains his ankle, but unfelt then) — 
and the figure, Booth, the murderer, dressed in 



132 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

plain black broadcloth, bare-headed, with a full 
head of glossy, raven hair, and his eyes, like some 
mad animal's flashing with light and resolution, yet 
with a certain strange calmness, holds aloft in one 
hand a large knife — walks along not much back of 
the foot-lights — turns fully towards the audience 
his face of statuesque beauty, lit by those basilisk 
eyes, flashing with desperation, perhaps insanity — 
launches out in a firm and steady voice the words 
Sic Semper Tyrannis — and then walks with 
neither slow nor very rapid pace diagonally across 
to the back of the stage, and disappears. (Had 
not all this terrible scene — making the mimic ones 
preposterous — had it not all been rehearsed, in 
blank, by Booth, beforehand?) 

A moment's hush, incredulous — a scream — the 
cry of murder — Mrs. Lincoln leaning out of the 
box, with ashy cheeks and lips, with involuntary 
cry, pointing to the retreating figure, " He has 
killed the President." And still a moment's 
strange, incredulous suspense — and then the 
deluge! — then that mixture of horror, noises, un- 
certainty — (the sound, somewhere back, of a 
horse's hoofs clattering with speed) the people 
burst through chairs and railings, and break them 
up — that noise adds to the queerness of the scene 
— there is extricable confusion and terror — 
women faint — quite feeble persons fall, and are 
trampled on — many cries of agony are heard — 
the broad stage suddenly fills to suffocation with a 
dense and motley crowd, like some horrible carni- 
val — the audience rush generally upon it — at 



DEATH OF LINCOLN 133 

least the strong men do — the actors and actresses 
are there in their play costumes and painted faces, 
with moral fright showing through the rouge — 
some trembling, some in tears, the screams and 
calls, confused talk — redoubled, trebled — two or 
three manage to pass up water from the stage to 
the President's box — others try to clamber up — 
etc., etc. 

In the midst of all this the soldiers of the Presi- 
dent's Guard, with others, suddenly drawn to the 
scene, burst in — some 200 altogether — they storm 
the house, through all the tiers, especially the upper 
ones — inflamed with fury, literally charging the 
audience with fixed bayonets, muskets and pistols, 
shouting " Clear out ! clear out ! . . . Such the 
wild scene, or a suggestion of it, rather, inside the 
play house that night. 

Outside, too, in the atmosphere of shock and 
craze, crowds of people filled with frenzy, ready 
to seize any outlet for it, came near committing 
murder several times on innocent individuals. One 
such case was especially exciting. The infuriated 
crowd, through some chance, got started against 
one man, either for words he uttered, or perhaps 
without any cause at all, and were proceeding at 
once to hang him on a neighboring lamp-post, when 
he was rescued by a few heroic policemen, who 
placed him in their midst and fought their way 
slowly and amid great peril toward the station 
house. It was a fitting episode of the whole af- 
fair. The crowd rushing and eddying to and fro, 
the night, the yells, the pale faces, many fright- 



134 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

ened people trying in vain to extricate themselves, 
the attacked man, not yet freed from the jaws of 
death, looking like a corpse, the silent, resolute 
half dozen policemen, with no weapons but their 
little clubs, yet stern and steady through all those 
eddying swarms — made indeed a fitting side scene 
to the grand tragedy of the murder. They gained 
the station house with the protected man, whom 
they placed in security for the night and discharged 
in the morning. 

And in the midst of that night pandemonium of 
senseless hate, infuriated soldiers, the audience and 
the crowd — the stage, and all its actors and ac- 
tresses, its paint pots, spangles and gaslight — the 
life blood from those veins, the best and sweetest 
of the land, drips slowly down. . . . 

Such, hurriedly sketched, were the accompani- 
ments of the death of President Lincoln. So sud- 
denly, and in murder and horror unsurpassed, he 
was taken from us. But his death was painless. 



HUSH'D BE THE CAMPS TO-DAY^ 
(May 4, 1865) 

BY WALT WHITMAN 

Hush'd be the camps to-day. 

And soldiers, let us drape our war-worn weapons, 
And each with musing soul retire to celebrate 
Our dear commander's death. 

^By permission of David McKay. 



MEMORY OF LINCOLN 135 

No more for him life's stormy conflicts, 

Nor victory, nor defeat — no more time's dark 

events. 
Charging Hke ceaseless clouds across the sky. 

But sing, poet, in our name. 

Sing of the love we bore him — because you, 
dweller in camps, know it truly. 

As they invault the coffin there, 

Sing — as they close the doors of earth upon him 

— one verse, 
For the heavy hearts of soldiers. 



TO THE MEMORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
(1865) 

BY WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT 

O, slow to smite and swift to spare, , 

Gentle and merciful and just! 
Who, in the fear of God, didst bear 

The sword of power — a nation's trust. 

In sorrow by thy bier we stand, 

Amid the awe that hushes all, 
And speak the anguish of a land 

That shook with horror at thy fall. 

Thy task is done — the bond are free; 

We bear thee to an honored grave. 
Whose noblest monument shall be 

The broken fetters of the slave. 



136 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

Pure was thy life ; its bloody close 

Hath placed thee with the sons of light, 

Among the noble host of those 

Who perished in the cause of right. 



CROWN HIS BLOODSTAINED PILLOW 

BY JULIA WARD HOWE 

Crown his blood-stained pillow 

With a victor's palm; 
Life's receding billow 

Leaves eternal calm. 

At the feet Almighty 

Lay this gift sincere ; 
Of a purpose weighty, 

And a record clear. 

With deliverance freighted 

Was this passive hand, 
And this heart, high-fated, 

Would with love command. 

Let him rest serenely 

In a Nation's care. 
Where her waters queenly 

Make the West more fair. 

In the greenest meadow 

That the prairies show, 
Let his marble's shadow 

Give all men to know: 



DEATH OF LINCOLN 137 

Our First Hero, living, 

Made his country free; 
Heed the Second's giving, 

Death for Liberty." 



THE DEATH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN ^ 

BY WALT WHITMAN 

Thus ended the attempted secession of these 
States; thus the four years' war. But the main 
things come subtly and invisibly afterward, per- 
haps long afterward — neither military, political, 
nor (great as those are), historical. I say, cer- 
tain secondary and indirect results, out of the 
tragedy of this death, are, in my opinion, greatest. 
Not the event of the murder itself. Not that Mr. 
Lincoln strings the principal points and person- 
ages of the period, like beads, upon the single 
string of his career. Not that his idiosyncrasy, in 
its sudden appearance and disappearance, stamps 
this Republic with a stamp more mark'd and en- 
during than any yet given by any one man — 
(more even than Washington's) — but, join'd with 
these, the immeasurable value and meaning of that 
whole tragedy lies, to me, in senses finally dearest 
to a nation (and here all our own) — the imagi- 
native and artistic senses — the literary and dra- 
matic ones. Not in any common or low meaning 
of those terms, but a meaning precious to the race, 

1 By permission of David McKay, 



138 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY, 

and to every age. A long and varied series of 
contradictory events arrives at last at its highest 
poetic, single, central, pictorial denouement. The 
whole involved, baffling, multiform whirl of the 
secession period comes to a head, and is gather'd 
in one brief flash of lightning-illumination — one 
simple, fierce deed. Its sharp culmination, and as 
it were solution, of so many bloody and angry 
problems, illustrates those climax-moments on the 
stage of universal Time, where the historic Muse 
at one entrance, and the tragic Muse at the other, 
suddenly ringing down the curtain, close an im- 
mense act in the long drama of creative thought, 
and give it radiation, tableau, stranger than fiction. 
Fit radiation — fit close ! How the imagination — 
how the student loves these things! America, too, 
is to have them. For not in all great deaths, nor 
far or near — not Csesar in the Roman senate- 
house, nor Napoleon passing away in the wild 
night-storm at St. Helena — not Paleologus. fall- 
ing, desperately fighting, piled over dozens deep 
with Grecian corpses — not calm old Socrates, 
drinking the hemlock — outvies that terminus of 
the secession war, in one man's life, here in our 
midst, in our own time — that seal of the emanci- 
pation of three million slaves — that parturition 
and delivery of our at last really free Republic, 
born again, henceforth to commence its career of 
genuine homogeneous Union, compact, consistent 
with itself. 



OUR SUN HATH GONE DOWN 139 



OUR SUN HATH GONE DOWN^ 

BY PHCEBE GARY 

Our sun hath gone down at the noonday, 

The heavens are black; 
And over the morning the shadov^s 

Of night-time are back. 

Stop the proud boasting mouth of the cannon, 
Hush the mirth and the shout ; — 

God is God ! and the ways of Jehovah 
Are past finding out. 

Lo! the beautiful feet on the mountains, 

That yesterday stood; 
The white feet that came with glad tidings, 

Are dabbled in blood. 

The Nation that firmly was settling 

The crown on her head. 
Sits, like Rizpah, in sackcloth and ashes. 

And watches her dead. 

Who is dead? who, unmoved by our wailing, 

Is lying so low? 
O, my Land, stricken dumb In your anguish, 

Do you feel, do you know, 

^By permission of Houghton, MiMin & Company. 



140 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

That the hand which reached out of the dark- 
ness 

Hath taken the whole? 
Yea, the arm and the head of the people — 

The heart and the soul! 

And that heart, o'er whose dread awful silence 

A nation has wept; 
Was the truest, and gentlest, and sweetest, 

A man ever kept ! 

Once this good man, we mourn, overwearied, 

Worn, anxious, oppressed, 
Was going out from his audience chamber 

For a season to rest; 

Unheeding the thousands who waited 

To honor and greet, 
When the cry of a child smote upon him. 

And turned back his feet. 

" Three days hath a woman been waiting," 
Said they, " patient and meek." 
And he answered, *' Whatever her errand. 
Let me hear ; let her speak ! " 

So she came, and stood trembling before him, 

And pleaded her cause; 
Told him all; how her child's erring father 

Had broken the laws. 

Humbly spake she : " I mourn for his folly, 

His weakness, his fall " ; 
Proudly spake she : " he is not a TRAITOR, 

And I love him through all ! " 



OUR SUN HATH GONE DOWN 141 

Then the great man, whose heart had been 
shaken 
By a Httle babe's cry; 
Answered soft, taking counsel of mercy, 
" This man shall not die ! " 

Why, he heard from the dungeons, the rice- 
fields. 

The dark holds of ships ; 
Every faint, feeble cry which oppression 

Smothered down on men's lips. 

In her furnace, the centuries had welded 

Their fetter and chain; 
And like withes, in the hands of his purpose, 

He snapped them in twain. 

Who can be what he was to the people; 

What he was to the State? 
Shall the ages bring to us another 

As good, and as great ? 

Our hearts with their anguish are broken. 

Our wet eyes are dim ; 
For us is the loss and the sorrow, 

The triumph for him! 

For, ere this, face to face with his Father 

Our Martyr hath stood; 
Giving unto his hand the white record, 

With its great seal of blood ! 



142 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY, 

TOLLING ^ 
^(April 15, 1865)' 

BY LUCY LARCOM 

Tolling, tolling, tolling ! 

All the bells of the land! 
Lo, the patriot martyr 

Taketh his journey grand! 
Travels into the ages, 

Bearing a hope how dear! 
Into life's unknown vistas, 

Liberty's great pioneer. 

Tolling, tolling, tolling! 

See, they come as a cloud, 
Hearts of a mighty people. 

Bearing his pall and shroud; 
Lifting up, like a banner, 

Signals of loss and woe; 
Wonder of breathless nations, 

Moveth the solemn show. 

Tolling, tolling, tolling! 

Was it, O man beloved. 
Was it thy funeral only 

Over the land that moved? 
Veiled by that hour of anguish. 

Borne with the rebel rout, 
Forth into utter darkness, 

Slavery's curse went out. 
"^ By permission of Houghton, MiifJin & Company, 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 143 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN^ 
" Strangulatus Pro Republica " 

BY ROSE TERRY COOKE 

Hundreds there have been, loftier than their kind, 
Heroes and victors in the world's great wars : 
Hundreds, exalted as the eternal stars, 
By the great heart, or keen and mighty mind; 
There have been sufferers, maimed and halt and 

blind. 
Who bore their woes In such triumphant calm 
That God hath crowned them with the martyr's 

palm ; 
And there were those who fought through fire to 

find 
Their Master's face, and were by fire refined. 
But who like thee, oh Sire! hath ever stood 
Steadfast for truth and right, when lies and wrong 
Rolled their dark waters, turbulent and strong; 
Who bore reviling, baseness, tears and blood 
Poured out like water, till thine own was spent. 
Then reaped Earth's sole reward — a grave and 

monument ! 



^By permission of Houghton, MiMin & Company, 



144 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

EFFECT OF THE DEATH OF LINCOLN 

BY HENRY WARD BEECHER 

Again a great leader of the people has passed 
through toil, sorrow, battle and war, and come 
near to the promised land of peace into which he 
might not pass over. Who shall recount our mar- 
tyr's sufferings for this people? Since the No- 
vember of i860, his horizon has been black with 
storms. 

By day and by night, he trod a way of danger 
and darkness. On his shoulders rested a govern- 
ment dearer to him than his own life. At its 
integrity millions of men were striking at home. 
Upon this government foreign eyes lowered. It 
stood like a lone island in a sea full of storms, 
and every tide and wave seemed eager to devour It. 
Upon thousands of hearts great sorrows and 
anxieties have rested, but not on one such, and 
in such measure, as upon that simple, truthful, 
noble soul, our faithful and sainted Lincoln. 
Never rising to the enthusiasm of more impas- 
sioned natures in hours of hope, and never sink- 
ing with the mercurial, in hours of defeat, to the 
depths of despondency, he held on with immov- 
able patience and fortitude, putting caution against 
hope, that it might not be premature, and hope 
against caution that it might not yield to dread 
and danger. He wrestled ceaselessly, through four 



DEATH OF LINCOLN 145 

black and dreadful purgatorial years, wherein God 
was cleansing the sin of His people as by fire. 

At last, the watcher beheld the gray dawn for 
the country. The mountains began to give forth 
their forms from out the darkness and the East 
came rushing toward us with arms full of joy for 
all our sorrows. Then it was for him to be glad 
exceedingly that had sorrowed immeasurably. 
Peace could bring to no other heart such joy and 
rest, such honor, such trust, such gratitude. But 
he looked upon it as Moses looked upon the 
promised land. Then the wail of a nation pro- 
claimed that he had gone from among us. Not 
thine the sorrow, but ours, sainted soul. Thou 
hast, indeed, entered the promised land, while we 
are yet on the march. To us remain the rocking 
of the deep, the storm upon the land, days of duty 
and nights of watching; but thou art sphered high 
above all darkness and fear, beyond all sorrow and 
weariness. Rest, O weary heart! Rejoice ex- 
ceedingly, — thou that hast enough suffered ! Thou 
hast beheld Him who invisibly led thee in this 
great wilderness. Thou standest among the elect. 
Around thee are the royal men that have ennobled 
human life in every age. Kingly art thou, with 
glory on thy brow as a diadem. And joy is upon 
thee for evermore. Over all this land, over all 
the little cloud of years that now from thine in- 
finite horizon moves back as a speck, thou art 
lifted up as high as the star is above the clouds 
that hide us, but never reach it. In the goodly 



146 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

company of Mount Zion thou shalt find that rest 
which thou hast sorrowing sought in vain; and 
thy name, an everlasting name in heaven, shall 
flourish in fragrance and beauty as long as men 
shall last upon the earth, or hearts remain, to 
revere truth, fidelity and goodness. 

Never did two such orbs of experience meet in 
one hemisphere, as the joy and the sorrow of the 
same week in this land. The joy was as sudden 
as if no man had expected it, and as entrancing 
as if it had fallen a sphere from heaven. It rose 
up over sobriety, and swept business from its moor- 
ings, and ran down through the land in irresistible 
course. Men embraced each other in brotherhood 
that were strangers in the flesh. They sang, or 
prayed, or deeper yet, many could only think 
thanksgiving and weep gladness. 

That peace was sure; that government was 
firmer than ever; that the land was cleansed of 
plague ; that the ages were opening to our foot- 
steps, and we were to begin a march of blessings; 
that blood was staunched and scowling enmities 
were sinking like storms beneath the horizon ; that 
the dear fatherland, nothing lost, much gained, was 
to rise up in unexampled honor among the nations 
of the earth — these thoughts, and that undis- 
tinguishable throng of fancies, and hopes, and de- 
sires, and yearnings, that filled the soul with trem- 
blings like the heated air of midsummer days — 
all these kindled up such a surge of joy as no words 
may describe. 

In one hour, joy lay without a pulse, without 



DEATH OF LINCOLN 147 

a gleam or breath. A sorrow came that swept 
through the land as huge storms sweep through the 
forest and field, rolling thunder along the sky, dis- 
heveling the flowers, daunting every singer in 
thicket or forest, and pouring blackness and dark- 
ness across the land and up the mountains. Did 
ever so many hearts, in so brief a time, touch two 
such boundless feelings? It was the uttermost of 
joy ; it was the uttermost of sorrow — noon and 
midnight, without a space between. 

The blow brought not a sharp pang. It was so 
terrible that at first it stunned sensibility. Citi- 
zens were like men awakened at midnight by an 
earthquake, and bewildered to find everything that 
they were accustomed to trust wavering and fall- 
ing. The very earth was no longer solid. The 
first feeling was the least. Men waited to get 
strength to feel. They wandered in the streets as 
if groping after some Impending dread, or unde- 
veloped sorrow, or some one to tell them what ailed 
them. They met each other as if each would ask 
the other, *' Am I awake, or do I dream ? " There 
was a piteous helplessness. Strong men bowed 
down and wept. Other and common griefs be- 
longed to someone in chief; this belonged to 
all. It was each and every man's. Every vir- 
tuous household in the land felt as if its first- 
born were gone. Men were bereaved and walked 
for days as if a corpse lay unburied in their 
dwellings. There was nothing else to think of. 
They could speak of nothing but that; and yet of 
that they could speak only falteringly. All busi- 



14^ LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

ness was laid aside. Pleasure forgot to smile. 
The city for nearly a week ceased to roar. The 
great Leviathan lay down, and was still. Even 
avarice stood still, and greed was strangely moved 
to generous sympathy and universal sorrow. Rear 
to his name monuments, found charitable institu- 
tions, and write his name above their lintels, but no 
monument will ever equal the universal, spontan- 
eous, and sublime sorrow that in a moment swept 
down lines and parties, and covered up animosities, 
in an hour brought a divided people into unity of 
grief and indivisible fellowship of anguish. 

This Nation has dissolved — but in tears only. 
It stands four-square, more solid to-day than any 
pyramid in Egypt. This people are neither wasted, 
nor daunted, nor disordered. Men hate slavery 
and love liberty with stronger hate and love to- 
day than ever before. The government is not 
weakened; it is made stronger. How naturally 
and easily were the ranks closed ! Another steps 
forward, in the hour that one fell, to take his place 
and his mantle ; and I avow my belief that he will 
be found a man true to every instinct of liberty; 
true to the whole trust that is reposed in him; 
vigilant of the Constitution; careful of the laws; 
wise for liberty, in that he himself, through his 
life, has known what it was to suffer from the 
stings of slavery, and to prize liberty from bitter 
personal experiences. 

Where could the head of government of any 
monarchy be smitten down by the hand of an as- 
sassin, and the funds not quiver or fall one-half of 



DEATH OF LINCOLN 149 

one per cent? After a long period of national dis- 
turbance, after four years of drastic war, after tre- 
mendous drafts on the resources of the country, in 
the height and top of our burdens, the heart of this 
people is such that now, when the head of govern- 
ment is stricken down, the public funds do not 
waver, but stand as the granite ribs in our moun- 
tains. 

Republican institutions have been vindicated in 
this experience as they never were before ; and the 
whole history of the last four years, rounded up by 
this cruel stroke, seems in the providence of God, 
to have been clothed now, with an illustration, with 
a sympathy, with an aptness, and with a sig- 
nificance, such as we never could have expected nor 
imagined. God, I think, has said, by the voice of 
this event, to all nations of the earth : " Republi- 
can liberty, based upon true Christianity, is firm as 
the foundation of the globe.'' 

Even he who now sleeps has, by this event, been 
clothed with new influence. Dead, he speaks to 
men who now willingly hear what before they re- 
fused to listen to. Now his simple and weighty 
words will be gathered like those of Washington, 
and your children and your children's children shall 
be taught to ponder the simplicity and deep wisdom 
of utterances which, in their time, passed, in party 
heat, as idle words. Men will receive a new im- 
pulse of patriotism for his sake, and will guard 
with zeal the whole country which he loved so well. 
I swear you, on the altar of his memory, to be more 
faithful to the country for which he has ,perished. 



ISO LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

They will, as they follow his hearse, swear a new 
hatred to that slavery against which he warred, and 
which, in vanquishing him, has made him a martyr 
and a conqueror. I swear you, by the memory of 
this martyr, to hate slavery, with an unappeasable 
hatred. They will admire and imitate the firmness 
of this man, his inflexible conscience for the right, 
and yet his gentleness, as tender as a woman's, his 
moderation of spirit, which not all the heat of party 
could inflame, nor all the jars and disturbances of 
his country shake out of place. I swear you to an 
emulation of his justice, his moderation, and his 
mercy. 

You I can comfort ; but how can I speak to that 
twilight million to whom his name was as the name 
of an angel of God? There will be wailing in 
places which no minister shall be able to reach. 
When, in hovel and in cot, in wood and in wilder- 
ness, in the field throughout the South, the dusky 
children, who looked upon him as that Moses 
whom God sent before them to lead them out of 
the land of bondage, learn that he has fallen, who 
shall comfort them? O, thou Shepherd of Israel, 
that didst comfort Thy people of old, to Thy care 
we commit the helpless, the long-wronged, and 
grieved. 

And now the martyr is moving in triumphal 
march, mightier than when alive. The Nation 
rises up at every stage of his coming. Cities and 
States are his pallbearers, and the cannon beats the 
hours with solemn progression. Dead, dead, dead, 
he yet speaketh. Is Washington dead ? Is Hamp- 



HYMN 151 

den dead? Is David dead? Is any man that was 
ever fit to live dead? Disenthralled of flesh, and 
risen in the unobstructed sphere where passion 
never comes, he begins his illimitable work. His 
life now is grafted upon the infinite, and will be 
fruitful as no earthly life can be. 

Pass on, thou that hast overcome. Your sorrows, 
O people, are his peace. Your bells and bands and 
muffled drums sound triumph in his ear. Wail and 
w^eep here ; God made it echo joy and triumph there. 
Pass on. 

Four years ago, O Illinois, we took from your 
midst an untried man, and from among the people. 
We return him to you a mighty conqueror. Not 
thine any more, but the Nation's ; not ours, but the 
world's. Give him place, O ye prairies. In the 
midst of this great continent his dust shall rest, a 
sacred treasure to myriads who shall pilgrim to 
that shrine to kindle anew their zeal and patriotism. 
Ye winds that move over the mighty places of the 
West, chant his requiem. Ye people, behold a 
martyr whose blood as so many articulate words, 
pleads for fidelity, for law, for liberty. 



HYMN,^ 

BY OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES 

O Thou of soul and sense and breath, 
The ever-present Giver, 
^ By permission of Houghton, MifHin & Company. 



152 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

Unto Thy mighty angel, death, 

All flesh thou didst deliver ; 
What most we cherish, we resign. 
For life and death alike are Thine, 
Who reignest Lord forever! 

Our hearts lie buried in the dust 
With him, so true and tendei, 

The patriot's stay, the people's trust, 
The shield of the offender ; 

Yet every murmuring voice is still. 

As, bowing to Thy sovereign will. 
Our best loved we surrender. 

Dear Lord, with pitying eye behold 

This martyr generation. 
Which Thou, through trials manifold. 

Art showing Thy salvation! 
O let the blood by murder split 
Wash out Thy stricken children's guilt. 

And sanctify our nation ! 

Be Thou Thy orphaned Israel's friend. 
Forsake Thy people never. 

In One our broken Many blend. 
That none again may sever! 

Hear us, O Father, while we raise 

With trembling lips our song of praise. 
And bless Thy name forever! 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



153 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
Foully Assassinated April 14, 1865 

BY TOM TAYLOR (mARK LEMON ) IN LONDON PUNCH. 

You lay a wreath on murdered Lincoln's bier, 
You, who with mocking pencil wont to trace, 

Broad for the self-complacent British sneer, 

His length of shambling limb, his furrowed face, 

His gaunt, gnarled hands, his unkempt, bristling 
hair, 

His garb uncouth, his bearing ill at ease, 
His lack of all we prize as debonair, 

Of power or will to shine, of art to please^ 

You whose smart pen backed up the pencil's laugh, 
Judging each step as though the way were plain ; 

Reckless, so it could point its paragraph. 
Of chief's perplexity, or people's pain: 

Beside this corpse, that bears for winding-sheet 
The Stars and Stripes he lived to rear anew, 

Between the mourners at his head and feet. 
Say, scurrile jester, is there room for you? 

Yes : he had lived to shame me from my sneer, 
To lame my pencil, and confute my pen: — 

To make me own this man of princes peer, 
This rail-splitter a true-born king of men. 



154 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

My shallow judgment I had learned to rue, 
Noting how to occasion's height he rose; 

How his quaint wit made home-truth seem more 
true; 
How, iron-like, his temper grew by blows. 

How humble, yet how hopeful he could be: 
How in good fortune and in ill, the same : 

Nor bitter in success, nor boastful he, 
Thirsty for gold, nor feverish for fame. 

He went about his work, — such work as few 
Ever had laid on head and heart and hand, — 

As one who knows, where there's a task to do, 
Man's honest will must heaven's good grace com- 
mand; 

Who trusts the strength will with the burden grow, 
That God makes instruments to work His will, 

If but that will we can arrive to know, 

Nor tamper with the weights of good and ill. 

So he went forth to battle, on the side 

That he felt clear was Liberty's and Right's, 

As in his peasant boyhood he had plied 

His warfare with rude Nature's thwarting 
mights, — 

The uncleared forest, the unbroken soil. 

The iron-bark, that turns the lumberer's axe, 

The rapid, that o'erbears the boatsman's toil. 
The prairie, hiding the mazed wanderer's tracks, 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 155 

The ambushed Indian, and the prowhng bear ; — 
Such were the deeds that helped his youth to 
train : 
Rough culture, — but such trees large fruit may 
bear, 
If but their stocks be of right girth and grain. 

So he grew up, a destined work to do, 

And lived to do it: four long suffering years. 

Ill-fate, ill-feeling, ill-report, lived through, 
And then he heard the hisses change to cheers. 

The taunts to tribute, the abuse to praise, 

And took both with the same unwavering mood : 

Till, as he came on light, from darkling days, 
And seem to touch the goal from where he stood, 

A felon hand, between the goal and him, 

Reached from behind his back, a trigger prest, — 

And those perplexed and patient eyes were dim. 
Those gaunt, long-laboring limbs were laid to 
rest! 

The words of mercy were upon his lips. 
Forgiveness in his heart and on his pen. 

When this vile murderer brought swift eclipse 
To thoughts of peace on earth, good-will to men. 

The Old World and the New, from sea to sea, 
Utter one voice of sympathy and shame ! 

Sore heart, so stopped when it at last beat high ; 
Sad life, cut short just as its triumph came. 



156 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

A deed accurst! Strokes have been struck before 
By the assassin^s hand, whereof men doubt 

If more of horror or disgrace they bore ; 

But thy foul crime, Hke Cain's, stands darkly out. 

Vile hand, that brandest murder on a strife, 

Whate'er its grounds, stoutly and nobly 'striven; 

And with the martyr's crown crownest a life 
With much to praise, little to be forgiven. 



VI 
TRIBUTES 



THE MARTYR CHIEF ^ 
From the Harvard Commemoration Ode, 

BY JAMES RUSSEL LOWELL 

Life may be given in many ways, 

And loyalty to Truth be sealed 
As bravely in the closet as the field, 

So generous is Fate; 

But then to stand beside her, 

When craven churls deride her, 
To front a lie in arms, and not to yield — 

This shows, methinks, God's plan 

And measure of a stalwart man, 
Limbed, like the old heroic breeds, 

Who stands self-poised on manhood's solid 
earth, 

Not forced to frame excuses for his birth, 
Fed from within with all the strength he needs. 
Such was he, our Martyr Chief, 

Whom late the nation he had led. 

With ashes on her head. 
Wept with the passion of an angry grief : 
Forgive me, if from present things I turn 
To speak what in my heart will beat and burn, 
And hang my wreath on his world-honored urn. 

Nature, they say, doth dote, 

And cannot make a man 

Save on some worn-out plan. 

Repeating us by rote : 

1 By permission of Houghton, MiiHin & Company. 



i6o LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

For him her Old-World moulds aside she threw, 
And, choosing sweet clay from the breast 
Of the unexhausted West, 

With stuff untainted shaped a hero new, 

Wise, steadfast in the strength of God, and true. 
How beautiful to see 

Once more a shepherd of mankind indeed, 

Who loved his charge, but never loved to lead ; 

One whose meek flock the people joyed to be, 
Not lured by any cheat of birth, 
But by his clear-grained human worth. 

And brave old wisdom of sincerity ! 

They knew that outward grace is dust; 
They could not choose but trust 

In that sure-footed mind's unfaltering skill, 
And supple-tempered will 

That bent like perfect steel to spring again and 
thrust. 
His was no lonely mountain-peak of mind, 
Thrusting to thin air o'er our cloudy bars, 
A seamark now, now lost in vapors blind, 
Broad prairie rather, genial, level-lined, 
Fruitful and friendly for all human kind, 

Yet also nigh to heaven and loved of loftiest stars. 
Nothing of Europe here, 

Or, then, of Europe fronting mornward still, 
Ere any names of serf and peer 
Could Nature's equal scheme deface; 
Here was a type of the true elder race. 

And one of Plutarch's men talked with us face to 
face. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN i6i 

I praise him not ; it were too late ; 
And some innative weakness there must be 
In him who condescends to victory 
Such as the present gives, and cannot wait, 
Safe in himself as in a fate. 
So always firmly he ; 
He knew to bide him time, 
And can his fame abide, 
Still patient in his simple faith sublime. 
Till the wise years decide. 
Great captains, with their guns and drums. 
Disturb our judgment for the hour. 
But at last silence comes: 
These are all gone, and, standing like a tower. 
Our children shall behold his fame. 

The kindly-earnest, brave, foreseeing man, 
Sagacious, patient, dreading praise, not blame. 
New birth of our new soil the first American. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN^ 

Remarks at the funeral services held in Concord, 
April 19, 1865 

BY RALPH WALDO EMERSON 

We meet under the gloom of a calamity which 
darkens down over the minds of good men in all 
civil society, as the fearful tidings travel over sea, 

^ By permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Company. 



i62 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

over land, from country to country, like the shadow 
of an uncalculated eclipse over the planet. Old as 
history is, and manifold as are its tragedies, I doubt 
if any death has caused so much pain to mankind 
as this has caused, or will cause, on its announce- 
ment ; and this, not so much because nations are by 
modern arts brought so closely together, as because 
of the mysterious hopes and fears which, in the 
present day, are connected with the name and in- 
stitutions of America. 

In this country, on Saturday, every one was 
struck dumb, and saw at first only deep below deep, 
as he ineditated on the ghastly blow. And perhaps, 
at this hour, when the coffin which contains the 
dust of the President sets forward on its long 
march through mourning States, on its way to 
his home in Illinois, we might well be silent and 
suffer the awful voices of the time to thunder to 
us. Yes, but that first despair was brief : the man 
was not so to be mourned. He was the most active 
and hopeful of men ; and his work has not 
perished: but acclamations of praise for the task 
he has accomplished burst out into a song of tri- 
umph, which even tears for his death cannot keep 
down. 

The President stood before us as a man of the 
people. He was thoroughly American, had never 
crossed the sea, had never been spoiled by English 
insularity or French dissipation ; a quiet native, ab- 
original man, as an acorn from the oak ; no aping 
of foreigners, no frivolous accomplishments, Ken- 
tuckian born, working on a farm, a flatboat-man, a 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 163 

captain in the Black Hawk war, a country lawyer, 
a representative in the rural legislature of Illinois; 
— on such modest foundations the broad structure 
of his fame was laid. How slowly, and yet by 
happily prepared steps, he came to his place. All 
of us remember — it is only a history of five or six 
years — the surprise and the disappointment of the 
country at his first nomination by the convention at 
Chicago. Mr. Seward, then in the culmination of 
his good fame, was the favorite of the Eastern 
States. And when the new and comparatively un- 
known name of Lincoln was announced (notwith- 
standing the report of the acclamations of that con- 
vention), we heard the result coldly and sadly. It 
seemed too rash, on a purely local reputation, to 
build so grave a trust in such anxious times ; and 
men naturally talked of the chances in politics as in- 
calculable. But it turned out not to be chance. 
The profound good opinion which the people of 
Illinois and of the West had conceived of him, and 
which they had imparted to their colleagues, that 
they also might justify themselves to their constitu- 
ents at home, was not rash, though they did not be- 
gin to know the riches of his worth. 

A plain man of the people, an extraordinary for- 
tune attended him. He offered no shining qualities 
at the first encounter ; he did not offend by superi- 
ority. He had a face and manner which disarmed 
suspicion, which inspired confidence, which con- 
firmed good will. He was a man without vices. 
He had a strong sense of duty, which it was very 
easy for him to obey. Then he had what farmers 



i64 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

call a long head; was excellent in working out the 
sum for himself; in arguing his case and convinc- 
ing you fairly and firmly. Then it turned out that 
he was a great worker; had prodigious faculty of 
performance; worked easily. A good worker is 
so rare ; everybody has some disabling quality. In 
a host of young men that start together and promise 
so many brilliant leaders for the next age, each 
fails on trial; one by bad health, one by conceit, or 
by love of pleasure, or lethargy, or an ugly temper, 
— each has some disqualifying fault that throws 
him out of the career. But this man was sound 
to the core, cheerful, persistent, all right for labor, 
and liked nothing so well. 

Then he had a vast good nature, which made him 
tolerant and accessible to all; fair minded, leaning 
to the claim of the petitioner ; affable, and not sensi- 
ble to the affliction which the innumerable visits 
paid to him when President would have brought 
to any one else. And how this good nature be- 
came a noble humanity, in many a tragic case which 
the events of the war brought to him, every one 
will remember; and with what increasing tender- 
ness he dealt when a whole race was thrown on his 
compassion. The poor negro said of him, on an 
impressive occasion, " Massa Linkum am ebery- 
where." 

Then his broad good humor, running easily into 
jocular talk, in which he delighted and in which he 
excelled, was a rich gift to this wise man. It en- 
abled him to keep his secret ; to meet every kind of 
man and every rank in society ; to take off the edge 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 165 

of the severest decisions ; to mask his own purpose 
and sound his companion; and to catch with true 
instinct the temper of every company he addressed. 
And, more than all, it is to a man of severe labor, 
in anxious and exhausting crises, the natural restor- 
ative, good as sleep, and is the protection of the 
overdriven brain against rancor and insanity. 

He is the author of a multitude of good sayings, 
so disguised as pleasantries that it is certain they 
had no reputation at first but as jests; and only 
later, by the very acceptance and adoption they find 
in the mouths of millions, turn out to be the wis- 
dom of the hour. I am sure if this man had ruled 
in a period of less facility of printing, he would 
have become mythological in a very few years, like 
^sop or Pilpay, or one of the Seven Wise Mas- 
ters, by his fables and proverbs. But the weight 
and penetration of many passages in his letters, 
messages, and speeches, hidden now by the very 
closeness of their application to the moment, are 
destined hereafter to wide fame. What pregnant 
definitions; what unerring common sense; what 
foresight; and, on great occasion, what lofty, and 
more than national, what humane tone! His brief 
speech at Gettysburg will not easily be surpassed 
by words on any recorded occasion. This, and one 
other American speech, that of John Brown to the 
court that tried him, and a part of Kossuth's speech 
at Birmingham, can only be compared with each 
other, and with no fourth. 

His occupying the chair of State was a triumph 
of the good sense of mankind, and of the public 



i66 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

conscience. This middle-class country had got a 
middle-class President, at last. Yes, in manners 
and sympathies, but not in powers, for his powers 
were superior. This man grew according to the 
need. His mind mastered the problem of the day; 
and as the problem grew, so did his comprehension 
of it. Rarely was man so fitted to the event. In 
the midst of fears and jealousies, in the Babel of 
counsels and parties, this man wrought incessantly 
with all his might and all his honesty, laboring to 
find what the people wanted, and how to obtain 
that. It cannot be said there is any exaggeration 
of his worth. If ever a man was fairly tested, he 
was. There was no lack of resistance, nor of slan- 
der, nor of ridicule. The times have allowed no 
state secrets ; the nation has been in such ferment, 
such multitudes had to be trusted, that no secret 
could be kept. Every door was ajar, and we know 
all that befell. 

Then, what an occasion was the whirlwind of the 
w^ar. Here was place for no holiday magistrate, 
no fair-weather sailor ; the new pilot was hurried to 
the helm in a tornado. In four years, — four years 
of battle-days, — his endurance, his fertility of re- 
sources, his magnanimity, were sorely tried and 
never found wanting. There, by his courage, his 
justice, his even temper, his fertile counsel, his hu- 
manity, he stood a heroic figure in the centre of a 
heroic epoch. He is the true history of the Amer- 
ican people in his time. Step by step he walked be- 
fore them ; slow with their slowness, quickening his 
march by theirs, the true representative of this con- 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 167 

tinent; an entirely public man; father of his coun- 
try, the pulse of twenty-millions throbbing in his 
heart, the thought of their minds articulated by his 
tongue. 

Adam Smith remarks that the axe, which in 
Houbraken's portraits of British kings and worthies 
is engraved under those who have suffered at the 
block, adds a certain lofty charm to the picture. 
And who does not see, even in this tragedy so re- 
cent, how fast the terror and ruin of the massacre 
are already burning into glory around the victim? 
Far happier this fate than to have lived to be wished 
away; to have watched the decay of his own facul- 
ties ; to have seen — perhaps even be — the prover- 
bial ingratitude of statesmen; to have seen mean 
men preferred. Had he not lived long enough to 
keep the greatest promise that ever man made to his 
fellow men, — the practicable abolition of slavery? 
He had seen Tennessee, Missouri, and Maryland 
emancipate their slaves. He had seen Savannah, 
Charleston, and Richmond surrendered; had seen 
the main army of the rebellion lay down its arms. 
He had conquered the public opinion of Canada, 
England, and France. Only Washington can com- 
pare with him in fortune. 

And what if it should turn out, in the unfolding 
of the web, that he had reached the term ; that this 
heroic deliverer could no longer serve us; that the 
rebellion had touched its natural conclusion, and 
what remained to be done required new and uncom- 
mitted hands, — a new spirit born out of the ashes 
of the war; and that Heaven, wishing to show the 



i68 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

world a completed benefactor, shall make him serve 
his country even more by his death than by his life? 
Nations, like kings, are not good by facility and 
complaisance. " The kindness of kings consists in 
justice and strength." Easy good nature has been 
the dangerous foible of the Republic, and it was 
necessary that its enemies should outrage it, and 
drive us to unwonted firmness, to secure the salva- 
tion of this country in the next ages. 

The ancients believed in a serene and beautiful 
Genius which ruled in the affairs of nations; 
which, with a slow but stern justice, carried for- 
ward the fortunes of certain chosen houses, 
weeding out single offenders or offending fami- 
lies, and securing at last the firm prosperity of 
the favorites of Heaven. It was too narrow a 
view of the Eternal Nemesis, There is a serene 
Providence which rules the fate of nations, 
which makes little account of time, little of 
one generation or race, makes no acount of dis- 
asters, conquers alike by what is called defeat or 
by what is called victory, thrusts aside enemy and 
obstruction, crushes everything immoral as inhu- 
man, and obtains the ultimate triumph of the best 
race by the sacrifice of everything which resists the 
moral laws of the world. It makes its own in- 
struments, creates the man for the time, trains him 
in poverty, inspires his genuis, and arms him for 
his task. It has given every race its own talent, 
and ordains that only that race which combines 
perfectly with the virtues of all shall endure. 



WASHINGTON AND LINCOLN 169 
WASHINGTON AND LINCOLN 

BY WILLIAM MCKINLEY 

The greatest names in American history are 
Washington and Lincoln. One is forever associ- 
ated with the independence of the States and the 
formation of the Federal Union; the other with 
universal freedom and the preservation of the 
Union. 

Washington enforced the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence as against England. Lincoln proclaimed 
the fulfilment not only to a down-trodden race in 
America, but to all people for all time who may 
seek the protection of our flag. These illustrious 
men achieved grander results for mankind within 
a single century than any other men ever accom- 
plished in all the years since the first flight of 
time began. 

Washington drew his sword not for a change of 
rulers upon an established throne, but to estab- 
lish a new government which should acknowledge 
no throne but the tribute of the people. 

Lincoln accepted war to save the Union, the safe- 
guard of our liberties, and re-established it on in- 
destructible foundations as forever " one and in- 
divisible." To quote his own words : " Now we 
are contending that this nation under God, shall 
have a new birth of freedom, and that government 
of the people, by the people, for the people shall not 
perish from the earth." 



I70 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 



LINCOLN 

BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Abraham Lincoln — the spirit incarnate of those 
who won victory in the Civil War — was the true 
representative of this people, not only for his own 
generation, but for all time, because he was a man 
among men. A man who embodied the qualities of 
his fellow-men, but who embodied them to the 
highest and most unusual degree of perfection, who 
embodied all that there was in the nation of cour- 
age, of wisdom, of gentle, patient kindliness, and 
of common sense. 



LINCOLN'S GRAVE 

BY MAURICE THOMPSON 

May one who fought in honor for the South 
Uncovered stand and sing by Lincoln's grave ? 
Why, if I shrunk not at the cannon's mouth, 
Nor swerved one inch for any battle-wave, 
Should I now tremble in this quiet close 
Hearing the prairie wind go lightly by 
From billowy plains of grass and miles of corn, 

While out of deep repose 
The great sweet spirit lifts itself on high 
And broods above our land this summer morn? 



LINCOLN'S GRAVE 171 

Meseems I feel his presence. Is he dead? 

Death is a word. He lives and grander grows. 

At Gettysburg he bows his bleeding head; 

He spreads his arms where Chickamauga flows, 

As if to clasp old soldiers to his breast, 

Of South or North no matter which they be, 

Not thinking of what uniform they wore, 

His heart a palimpsest, 
Record on record of humanity, 
Where love is first and last forevermore. 

He was the Southern mother leaning forth, 

At dead of night to hear the cannon roar. 

Beseeching God to turn the cruel North 

And break it that her son might come once more; 

He was New England's maiden pale and pure, 

Whose gallant lover fell on Shiloh's plain; 

He was the mangled body of the dead ; 

He writhing did endure 
Wounds and disfigurement and racking pain, 
Gangrene and amputation, all things dread. 

He was the North, the South, the East, the West, 

The thrall, the master, all of us in one; 

There was no section that he held the best; 

His love shone as impartial as the sun ; 

And so revenge appealed to him in vain; 

He smiled at it, as at a thing forlorn. 

And gently put it from him, rose and stood 

A moment's space in pain. 
Remembering the prairies and the corn 
And the glad yoices of the field and wood. 



172 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

And then when Peace set wing upon the wind 
And northward flying fanned the clouds away, 
He passed as martyrs pass. Ah, who shall find 
The chord to sound the pathos of that day! 
Mid-April blowing sweet across the land, 
New bloom of freedom opening to the world. 
Loud paeans of the homeward-looking host. 

The salutations grand 
From grimy guns, the tattered flags unfurled; 
And he must sleep to all the glory lost ! 

Sleep! loss! But there is neither sleep nor loss, 

And all the glory mantles him about; 

Above his breast the precious banners cross, 

Does he not hear his armies tramp and shout? 

Oh, every kiss of mother, wife or maid 

Dashed on the grizzly lip of veteran. 

Comes forthright to that calm and quiet mouthy 

And will not be delayed, 
And every slave, no longer slave but man, 
Sends up a blessing from the broken South. 

He is not dead, France knows he is not dead ; 
He stirs strong hearts in Spain and Germany, 
In far Siberian mines his words are said, 
He tells the English Ireland shall be free, 
He calls poor serfs about him in the night, 
And whispers of a power that laughs at kmgs, 
And of a force that breaks the strongest chain; 

Old tyranny feels his might 
Tearing away its deepest fastenings. 
And jewelled sceptres threaten him in vain. 



TRIBUTES 173 

Years pass away, but freedom does not pass, 
Thrones crumble, but man's birthright crumbles 

not, 
And, like the wind across the prairie grass, 
A whole world's aspirations fan this spot 
With ceaseless panting after liberty, 
One breath of which would make dark Russia fair, 
And blow sweet summer through the exile's cave 

And set the exile free ; 
For which I pray, here in the open air 
Of Freedom's morning-tide, by Lincoln's grave. 



TRIBUTES TO LINCOLN 

A man of great ability, pure patriotism, un- 
selfish nature, full of forgiveness to his enemies, 
bearing malice toward none, he proved to be the 
man above all others for the struggle through 
which the nation had to pass to place itself among 
the greatest in the family of nations. His fame 
will grow brighter as time passes and his great 
great work is better understood. 

U. S. Grant. 



At the moment when the stars of the Union, 
sparkling and resplendent with the golden fires of 
liberty, are waving over the subdued walls of 
Richmond the sepulchre opens, and the strong, the 

powerful enters it. 

Sr. Rehcllo Da Silva. 



174 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

He ascended the mount where he could see the 
fair fields and the smiling vineyards of the promised 
land. But, like the great leader of Israel, he was 
not permitted to come to the possession. 

Seth Szveetser. 



In his freedom from passion and bitterness ; in 
his acute sense of justice; in his courageous faith 
in the right, and his inextinguishable hatred of 
wrong; in his warm and heartfelt sympathy and 
m.ercy; in his coolness of judgment; in his un- 
questioned rectitude of intention — in a word, in his 
ability to lift himself for his country's sake above 
all mere partisanship, in all the marked traits of 
his character combined, he has had no parallel since 
Washington, and while our republic endures he will 
live with him in the grateful hearts of his grateful 
countrymen. 

Schuyler Colfax. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

BY HENRY HOWARD BROWNELL 

Dead is the roll of the drums, 
And the distant thunders die, 
They fade in the far-off sky; 

And a lovely summer comes, 
Like the smile of Him on high. 

Lulled, the storm and the onset. 
Earth lies in a sunny swoon ; 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 175 

Stiller splendor of noon, 
Softer glory of sunset, 

Milder starlight and moon! 

For the kindly Seasons love us; 

They smile over trench and clod 
(Where we left the bravest of us) — 

There's a brighter green of the sod, 
And a holier calm above us 

In the blessed Blue of God. 

The roar and ravage were vain; 

And Nature, that never yields, 
Is busy with sun and rain 
At her old sweet work again 

On the lonely battle-fields. 

How the tall white daisies grow. 

Where the grim artillery rolled! 
(Was it only a moon ago? 

It seems a century old) — 

And the bee hums in the clover. 

As the pleasant June comes on ; 
Aye, the wars are all over, — 

But our good Father is gone. 

There was tumbling of traitor fort, 

Flaming of traitor fleet — 
Lighting of city and port, 

Clasping in square and street. 



176 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

There was thunder of mine and gun, 

Cheering by mast and tent, — 
When — his dread work all done, 
And his high fame full won — 
Died the Good President. 

In his quiet chair he sate, 

Pure of malice or guile, 
Stainless of fear or hate, — 

And there played a pleasant smile 
On the rough and careworn face; 

For his heart was all the while 
On means of mercy and grace. 

The brave old Flag drooped o'er him, 
(A fold in the hard hand lay) — 
He looked, perchance, on the play — 

But the scene was a shadow before him, 
For his thoughts were far away. 

'Twas but the morn (yon fearful 
Death-shade, gloomy and vast, 
Lifting slowly at last), 
His household heard him say, 
" Tis long since I've been so cheerful, 
So light of heart as to-day." 

'Twas dying, the long dread clang — 
But, or ever the blessed ray 
Of peace could brighten to-day. 
Murder stood by the way — 

Treason struck home his fang! 

One throb — and, without a pang, 
That pure soul passed away. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 177 

Kindly Spirit ! — Ah, when did treason 
Bid such a generous nature cease, 

Mild by temper and strong by reason. 
But ever leaning to love and peace? 

A head how sober ; a heart how spacious ; 

A manner equal with high or low ; 
Rough but gentle, uncouth but gracious. 

And still inclining to lips of woe. 

Patient when saddest, calm when sternest, 
Grieved when rigid for justice' sake; 

Given to jest, yet ever in earnest 

If aught of right or truth were at stake. 

Simple of heart, yet shrewd therewith. 
Slow to resolve, but firm to hold; 

Still with parable and with myth 
Seasoning truth, like Them of old; 

Aptest humor and quaintest pith! 

(Still we smile o'er the tales he told.) 

Yet whoso might pierce the guise 

Of mirth in the man we mourn. 
Would mark, and with grieved surprise, 

All the great soul had borne, 
In the piteous lines, and the kind, sad eyes 

So dreadfully wearied and worn. 

And we trusted (the last dread page 

Once turned, of our Dooms-day Scroll), 
To have seen him, sunny of soul, 

In a cheery, grand old age. 



178 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

But, Father, 'tis well with thee! 

And since ever, when God draws nigh, 
Some grief for the good must be, 

'Twas well, even so to die, — 

'Mid the thunder of Treason's fall^ 
The yielding of haughty town. 

The crashing of cruel wall, 

The trembling of tyrant crown! 

The ringing of hearth and pavement 
To the clash of falling chains, — 

The centuries of enslavement 

Dead, with their blood-bought gains! 

And through trouble weary and long, 
Well hadst thou seen the way, 

Leaving the State so strong 
It did not reel for a day. 

And even in death couldst give 
A token for Freedom's strife — 

A proof how republics live. 
And not by a single life. 

But the Right Divine of man, 

And the many, trained to be free, — 

And none, since the world began. 
Ever was mourned like thee. 

Dost thou feel it, O noble Heart! 

(So grieved and so wronged below), 
From the rest wherein thou art? 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 179 

Do they see it, those patient eyes? 
Is there heed in the happy skies 
For tokens of world-wide woe? 

The Land's great lamentations, 
The mighty mourning of cannon 
The myriad flags half-mast — 
The late remorse of the nations, 
Grief from Volga to Shannon! 
(Now they know thee at last.) 

How, from gray Niagara's shore 

To Canaveral's surfy shoal — 
From the rough Atlantic roar 

To the long Pacific roll — 

For bereavement and for dole, 
Every cottage wears its weed, 

White as thine own pure soul, 
And black as the traitor deed. 

How, under a nation's pall, 
The dust so dear in our sight 

To its home on the prairie passed, — 
The leagues of funeral. 

The myriads, morn and night, 
Pressing to look their last. 

Nor alone the State's Eclipse; 

But tears in hard eyes gather—* 
And on rough and bearded lips, 
Of the regiments and the ships — 

" Oh, our dear Father ! " 



•i8o LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

And methinks of all the million 

That looked on the dark dead face, 
'Neath its sable-plumed pavilion, 

The crone of a humbler race 
Is saddest of all to think on. 

And the old swart lips that said. 
Sobbing, " Abraham Lincoln ! 

Oh, he is dead, he is dead ! " 

Hush! let our heavy souls 

To-day be glad; for again 
The stormy music swells and rolls, 

Stirring the hearts of men. 

And under the Nation's Dome, 

They've guarded so well and long, 

Our boys come marching home, 
Two hundred thousand strong. 

All in the pleasant month of May, 
With war-worn colors and drums, 

Still through the livelong summer's day, 
Regiment, regiment comes. 

Like the tide, yesty and barmy. 
That sets on a wild lee-shore, 

Surge the ranks of an army 
Never reviewed before! 

Who shall look on the like again, 
Or see such host of the brave? 

A mighty River of marching men 
Rolls the Capital through — 

Rank on rank, and wave on wave, 
Of bayonet-crested blue! 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN i8i 

How the chargers neigh and champ, 
(Their riders weary of camp), 

With curvet and with caracole ! — 
The cavalry comes with thunderous tramp, 

And the cannons heavily roll. 

And ever, flowery and gay, 
The Staff sweeps on in a spray 

Of tossing forelocks and manes; 
But each bridle-arm has a weed 
Of funeral, black as the steed 

That fiery Sheridan reins. 

Grandest of mortal sights 

The sun-browned ranks to view — 

The Colors ragg'd in a hundred fights, 
And the dusty Frocks of Blue ! 

And all day, mile on mile. 

With cheer, and waving, and smile. 

The war-worn legions defile 

Where the nation's noblest stand; 
And the Great Lieutenant looks on, 

With the Flower of a rescued Land, — 
For the terrible work is done, 
And the Good Fight is won 

For God and for Fatherland. 

So, from the fields they win. 

Our men are marching home, 

A million are marching home! 
To the cannon's thundering din. 



i82 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

And banners on mast and dome — 
And the ships come saiHng in 
With all their ensigns dight, 
As erst for a great sea-fight. 

Let every color fly, 

Every pennon flaunt in pride; 
Wave, Starry Flag, on high! 
Float in the sunny sky, 

Stream o'er the stormy tide! 
For every stripe of stainless hue, 
And every star in the field of blue, 
Ten thousand of the brave and true 

Have laid them down and died. 

And In all our pride to-day 
We think, with a tender pain, 

Of those so far away 

They will not come home again. 

And our boys had fondly thought, 

To-day, in marching by, 
From the ground so dearly bought, 
And the fields so bravely fought. 
To have met their Father's eye. 

But they may not see him in place, 
Nor their ranks be seen of him; 

We look for the well-known face, 
And the splendor is strangely dim. 

Perish ? — who was it said 
Our Leader had passed away? 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 183 

Dead? Our President dead? 
He has not died for a day ! 

We mourn for a little breath 

Such as, late or soon, dust yields; 

But the Dark Flower of Death 
Blooms in the fadeless fields. 

We looked on a cold, still brow. 

But Lincoln could yet survive; 

He never was more alive, 
Never nearer than now. 

For the pleasant season found him, 
Guarded by faithful hands, 
In the fairest of Summer Lands ; 

With his own brave Staff around him, 
There our President stands. 

There they are all at his side. 

The noble hearts and true. 

That did all men might do — 
Then slept, with their swords and died. 

And around— (for there can cease 
This earthly trouble)- they throng, 

The friends that have passed in peace, 
The foes that have seen their wrong. 

(But, a little from the rest, 
With sad eyes looking down, 
And brows of softened frown, 



l84 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

With stern arms on the chest, 
Are two, standing abreast — 

Stonewall and Old John Brown.) 

But the stainless and the true. 
These by their President stand. 

To look on his last review, 

Or march with the old command. 

And lo! from a thousand fields. 
From all the old battle-haunts, 

A greater Army than Sherman wields, 
A grander Review than Grant's! 

Gathered home from the grave, 
Risen from sun and rain — 

Rescued from wind and wave 
Out of the stormy main — 

The Legions of our Brave 
Are all in their lines again ! 

Many a stout Corps that went. 
Full-ranked, from camp and tent, 

And brought back a brigade; 
Many a brave regiment. 

That mustered only a squad. 

The lost battalions. 

That, when the fight went wrong, 
Stood and died at their guns, — 

The stormers steady and strong. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 185 

With their best blood that bought 

Scrap, and ravelin, and wall, — 
The companies that fought 

Till a corporal's guard was all. 

Many a valiant crew, 

That passed in battle and wreck, — 
Ah, so faithful and true! 

They died on the bloody deck, 
They sank in the soundless blue. 

All the loyal and bold 

That lay on a soldier's bier, — 
The stretchers borne to the rear, 

The hammocks lowered to the hold. 

The shattered wreck we hurried, 

In death-fight, from deck and port, — ' 

The Blacks that Wagner buried — 
That died in the Bloody Fort! 

Comrades of camp and mess, 

Left, as they lay, to die. 
In the battle's sorest stress. 

When the storm of fight swept by, — 
They lay in the Wilderness, 

Ah, where did they not He? 

In the tangled swamp they lay, 
They lay so still on the sward ! — 

They rolled in the sick-bay, 

Moaning their lives away — 

They flushed in the fevered ward. 



i86 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

They rotted in Libby yonder, 

They starved in the foul stockade — 

Hearing- afar the thunder 
Of the Union cannonade! 

But the old wounds all are healed, 
And the dungeoned limbs are free, 

The Blue Frocks rise from the field, 
The Blue Jackets out of the sea. 

They've 'scaped from the torture-den, 

They've broken the bloody sod. 
They're all come to life again ! - — 
The Third of a Million men 

That died for Thee and for God! 

A tenderer green than May 
The Eternal Season wears, — 

The blue of our summer's day 
Is dim and pallid to theirs, — ■ 

The Horror faded away. 
And 'twas heaven all unawares ! 

Tents on the Infinite Shore! 

Flags in the azuline sky. 
Sails on the seas once more! 

To-day, in the heaven on high, 
All under arms once more! 

The troops are all in their lines, 
The guidons flutter and play ; 

But every bayonet shines. 
For all must march to-day. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 187 

What lofty pennons flaunt? 
What mighty echoes haunt, 

As of great guns, o'er the main? 

Hark to the sound again — 
The Congress is all a-taunt! 

The Cumberland's manned again! 

All the ships and their men 

Are in line of battle to-day, — 
All at quarters, as when 

Their last roll thundered away, — 
All at their guns, as then, 

For the Fleet salutes to-day. 

The armies have broken camp 

On the vast and sunny plain, 

The drums are rolling again; 
With steady, measured tramp. 

They're marching all again. 

With alignment firm and solemn, 

Once again they form 
In mighty square and column, — 

But never for charge and storm. 

The Old Flag they died under 

Floats above them on the shore, 
And on the great ships yonder 

The ensigns dip once more — 
And once again the thunder 

Of the thirty guns and four ! 



i88 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

In solid platoons of steel, 

Under heaven's triumphal arch, 

The long lines break and wheel — 
And the word is, " Forward, march ! 

The Colors ripple o'erhead. 
The drums roll up to the sky, 

And with martial time and tread 
The regiments all pass by — 

The ranks of our faithful Dead, 
Meeting their President's eye. 

With a soldier's quiet pride 

They smile o'er the perished pain, 
For their anguish was not vain — 

For thee, O Father, we died ! 
And we did not die in vain. 

March on, your last brave mile! 

Salute him. Star and Lace, 
Form round him, rank and file, 

And look on the kind, rough face ; 

But the quaint and homely smile 

Has a glory and a grace 
It never had known erewhile — 

Never, in time and space. 

Close round him, hearts of pride! 
Press near him, side by side, — 

Our Father is not alone! 
For the Holy Right ye died, 
And Christ, the Crucified, 

Waits to welcome His own. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 189 



TRIBUTES 

A statesman of the school of sound common 
sense, and a philanthropist of the most practical 
type, a patriot without a superior — his monument 
is a country preserved. 

C. S. Harrington. 



Now all men begin to see that the plain people, 
who at last came to love him and to lean upon his 
wisdom, and trust him absolutely, were altogether 
right, and that in deed and purpose he was earn- 
estly devoted to the welfare of the whole country, 
and of all its inhabitants. 

R. B. Hayes. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

BY JOEL BENTON 

Some opulent force of genius, soul, and race. 
Some deep life-current from far centuries 
Flowed to his mind, and lighted his sad eyes. 

And gave his name, among great names, high place. 

But these are miracles we may not trace — 
Nor say why from a source and lineage mean 
He rose to grandeur never dreamt or seen, 

Or told on the long scroll of history's space. 

1 By permission of the author. 



I90 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

The tragic fate of one broad hemisphere 
Fell on stern days to his supreme control, 

All that the world and liberty held dear 

Pressed like a nightmare on his patient soul. 

Martyr beloved, on whom, when life was done, 

Fame looked, and saw another Washington! 



ON THE LIFE-MASK OF ABRAHAM LIN- 
COLN ^ 

BY RICHARD WATSON GILDER 

This bronze doth keep the very form and mold 
Of our great martyr's face. Yes, this is he: 
That brow all wisdom, all benignity; 

That human, humorous mouth; those cheeks that 
hold 

Like some harsh landscape all the summer's gold; 
That spirit fit for sorrow, as the sea 
For storms to beat on ; the lone agony 

Those silent, patient lips too well foretold. 

Yes, this is he who ruled a world of men 
As might some prophet of the elder day — 
Brooding above the tempest and the fray 

With deep-eyed thought and more than mortal ken. 
A power was his beyond the touch of art 
Or armed strength — his pure and mighty heart. 

1 By permission of Houghton, MiMin & Company. 



TRIBUTES 



TRIBUTES 



191 



To him belongs the credit of having worked his 
way up from the humblest position an American 
freeman can occupy to the highest and most power- 
ful, without losing, in the least, the simplicity and 
sincerity of nature which endeared him alike to the 
plantation slave and the metropolitan millionaire. 

The most malignant party opposition has never 
been able to call in question the patriotism of his 
motives, or tarnish with the breath of suspicion the 
brightness of his spotless fidelity. Ambition did 
not warp, power corrupt, nor glory dazzle him. 

Warren H, Cudworth. 



By his steady, enduring confidence in God, and 
in the complete ultimate success of the cause of 
God which is the cause of humanity, more than in 
any other way does he now speak to us, and to the 
nation he loved and served so well. 

P. D. Giirley. 



Chieftain, farewell! The nation mourns thee. 
Mothers shall teach thy name to their lisping chil- 
dren. The youth of our land shall emulate thy 
virtues. Statesmen shall study thy record, and 
learn lessons of wisdom. Mute though thy lips 
be, yet they still speak. Hushed is thy voice, but 



192 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

its echoes of liberty are ringing- through the world, 
and the sons of bondage listen with joy. 

Matthew Simpson. 



LINCOLN 

BY GEORGE HENRY BOKER. 

Crown we our heroes with a holier wreath 
Than man e'er wore upon this side of death ; 
Mix with their laurels deathless asphodels, 
And chime their paeans from the sacred bells ! 
Nor in your prayers forget the martyred Chief, 
Fallen for the gospel of your own belief, 
Who, ere he mounted to the people's throne, 
Asked for your prayers, and joined in them his own. 
I knew the man. I see him, as he stands 
With gifts of mercy in his outstretched hands; 
A kindly light within his gentle eyes. 
Sad as the toil in which his heart grew wise ; 
His lips half-parted with the constant smile 
That kindled truth, but foiled the deepest guile; 
His head bent forward, and his willing ear 
Divinely patient right and wrong to hear: 
Great in his goodness, humble in his state, 
Firm in his purpose, yet not passionate, 
He led his people with a tender hand. 
And won by love a sway beyond command, 
Summoned by lot to mitigate a time 
Frenzied with rage, unscrupulous with crime. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 193 

He bore his mission with so meek a heart 
That Heaven itself took up his people's part; 
And when he faltered, helped him ere he fell, 
Eking his efforts out by miracle. 
No king this man, by grace of God's intent; 
No, something better, freeman, — President ! 
A nature, modeled on a higher plan, 
Lord of himself, an inborn gentleman! 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

JAMES A. GARFIELD 

In the great drama of the rebellion there were 
two acts. The first was the war, with its battles 
and sieges, its victories and defeats, its sufferings 
and tears. Just as the curtain was lifting on the 
second and final act, the restoration of peace and 
liberty, the evil spirit of the rebellion, in the fury 
of despair, nerved and directed the hand of an 
assassin to strike down the chief character in both. 
It was no one man who killed Abraham Lincoln; 
it was the embodied spirit of treason and slavery, 
inspired with fearful and despairing hate, that 
struck him down in the moment of the nation's su- 
premest joy. 

Sir, there are times in the history of men and na- 
tions when they stand so near the veil that sepa- 
rates mortals from the immortals, time from eter- 
nity, and men from God that they can almost hear 



194 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

the beatings and pulsations of the heart of the 
Infinite. Through such a time has this nation 
passed. 

When two hundred and fifty thousand brave 
spirits passed from the field of honor, through that 
thin veil, to the presence of God, and when at last 
its parting folds admitted the martyr President to 
the company of those dead heroes of the Republic, 
the nation stood so near the veil that the whispers 
of God were heard by the children of men. Awe- 
stricken by his voice, the American people knelt in 
tearful reverence and made a solemn covenant with 
him and with each other that this nation should be 
saved from its enemies^ that all its glories should be 
restored, and, on the ruins of slavery and treason, 
the temples of freedom and justice should be built, 
and should survive forever. 

It remains for us, consecrated by that great event 
and under a covenant with God, to keep that faith, 
to go forward in the great work until it shall be 
completed. Following the lead of that great man, 
and obeying the high behests of God, let us re- 
member that: 

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never 
call retreat; 

He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judg- 
ment seat; 

Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer him! be jubilant, 
my feet! 
Our God is marching on. 



AN HORATIAN ODE 195 

AN HORATIAN ODE^ 

BY RICHARD HENRY STODDARD 

Not as when some great captain falls 
In battle, where his country calls, 
Beyond the struggling lines 
That push his dread designs 

To doom, by some stray ball struck dead : 
Or in the last charge, at the head 
Of his determined men, 
Who must be victors then! 

Nor as when sink the civic great. 

The safer pillars of the State, 

Whose calm, mature, wise words 
Suppress the need of swords ! — 

With no such tears as e'er were shed 
Above the noblest of our dead 

Do we to-day deplore 

The man that is no more ! 

Our sorrow hath a wider scope, 
Too strange for fear, too vast for hope, — 
A wonder, blind and dumb, 
That waits — what is to come! 

Not more astonished had we been 
If madness, that dark night, unseen, 
Had in our chambers crept, 
And murdered while we slept! 

^ By permission of Charles Scribnefs Sons» 



196 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

We woke to find a mourning earth — 
Our Lares shivered on the hearth, — 
To roof-tree fallen, — all 
That could affright, appall! 

Such thunderbolts, in other lands, 
Have smitten the rod from royal hands. 
But spared, with us, till now, 
Each laurelled Caesar's brow ! 

No Caesar he, whom we lament, 

A man without a precedent, 
Sent it would seem, to do 
His work — and perish too ! 

Not by the weary cares of state. 
The endless tasks, which will not wait, 

Which, often done in vain. 

Must yet be done again : 

Not in the dark, wild tide of war, 
Which rose so high, and rolled so far. 

Sweeping from sea to sea 

In awful anarchy: — 

Four fateful years of mortal strife, 
Which slowly drained the nation's life, 
(Yet, for each drop that ran 
There sprang an armed man ! ) 

Not then; — but when by measures meet,- 

By victory, and by defeat, — 
By courage, patience, skill. 
The people's fixed " We will ! " 



AN HORATIAN ODE 197 

Had pierced, had crushed rebellion dead, — 
Without a hand, without a head : — 

At last, when all was well, 

He fell — O, how he fell! 

The time, — the place, — the stealing shape, — 
The coward shot, — the swift escape, — 

The wife, — the widow's scream, — 

It is a hideous dream ! 

A dream? — what means this pageant, then? 

These multitudes of solemn men, 
Who speak not when they meet, 
But throng the silent street? 

The flags half-mast, that late so high 
Flaunted at each new victory? 

(The stars no brightness shed, 

But bloody looks the red!) 

The black festoons that stretch for miles, 
And turn the streets to funeral aisles? 
(No house too poor to show 
The nation's badge of woe!) 

The cannon's sudden, sullen boom, — 
The bells that toll of death and doom, — 
The rolling of the drums, — 
The dreadful car that comes? 

Cursed be the hand that fired the shot! 

The frenzied brain that hatched the plot! 
Thy country's father slain 
By thee, thou worse than Cain! 



198 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

Tyrants have fallen by such as thou, 
And good hath followed — may it now! 

(God lets bad instruments 

Produce the best events.) 

But he, the man we mourn to-day. 
No tyrant was: so mild a sway 
In one such weight who bore 
Was never known before ! 

Cool should be he, of balanced powers. 

The ruler of a race like ours. 

Impatient, headstrong, wild, — 
The man to guide the child ! 

And this he was, who most unfit 
(So hard the sense of God to hit!) 

Did seem to fill his place. 

With such a homely face, — 

Such rustic manners, — speech uncouth, — 
(That somehow blundered out the truth!) 
Untried, untrained to bear 
The more than kingly care! 

Ay ! And his genius put to scorn 
The proudest in the purple born, 
Whose wisdom never grew 
To what, untaught, he knew — * 

The people, of whom he was one. 

No gentleman like Washington, — 

(Whose bones, methinks, make room, 
To have him in their tomb!) 



AN HORATIAN ODE 199 

A laboring man, with horny hands, 
Who swung the axe, who tilled his lands, 

Who shrank from nothing new, 

But did as poor men do! 

One of the people! Born to be 

Their curious epitome ; 

To share, yet rise above 
Their shifting hate and love. 

Common his mind (it seemed so then), 
His thought the thoughts of other men: 

Plain were his words, and poor — 

But now they will endure! 

No hasty fool, of stubborn will, 
But prudent, cautious, pliant, still; 

Who, since his work was good, 

Would do it, as he could. 

Doubting, was not ashamed to doubt. 
And, lacking prescience, went without: 
Often appeared to halt. 
And was, of course, at fault: 

Heard all opinions, nothing loth. 
And loving both sides, angered both: 

Was — not like justice, blind. 

But watchful, clement, kind. 

No hero, this, of Roman mould; 

Nor like our stately sires of old: 
Perhaps he was not great — 
But he preserved that State! 



200 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

O honest face, which all men knew! 
O tender heart, but known to few! 

O wonder of the age, 

Cut off by tragic rage ! 

Peace! Let the long procession come, 
For hark! — the mournful, muffled drum 

The trumpet's wail afar, — 

And see! the awful car! 

Peace! Let the sad procession go, 
While cannon boom, and bells toll slow : 

And go, thou sacred car, 

Bearing our woe afar ! 

Go, darkly borne, from State to State, 
Whose loyal, sorrowing cities wait 
To honor all they can 
The dust of that good man! 

Go, grandly borne, with such a train 
As greatest kings might die to gain: 
The just, the wise, the brave 
Attend thee to the grave ! 

And you, the soldiers of our wars, 
Bronzed veterans, grim with noble scars. 
Salute him once again, 
Your late commander — slain! 

Yes, let your tears, indignant, fall. 
But leave your muskets on the wall: 
Your country needs you now 
Beside the forge, the plough! 



AN HORATIAN ODE 201 

(When justice shall unsheathe her brand, — 
If mercy may not stay her hand, 

Nor would we have it so — 

She must direct the blow!) 

And you, amid the master-race. 
Who seem so strangely out of place. 

Know ye who cometh? He 

Who hath declared ye free! 

Bow while the body passes — nay, 
Fall on your knees, and weep, and pray ! 
Weep, weep — I would ye might — 
Your poor, black faces white ! 

And children, you must come in bands, 
With garlands in your little hands, 

Of blue, and white, and red, 

To strew before the dead! 

So sweetly, sadly, sternly goes 
The fallen to his last repose: 

Beneath no mighty dome. 

But in his modest home; 

The churchyard where his children rest. 
The quiet spot that suits him best: 

There shall his grave be made. 

And there his bones be laid! 

And there his countrymen shall come. 

With memory proud, with pity dumb, 

And strangers far and near. 

For many and many a year I 



202 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

For many a year, and many an age, 
While history on her ample page 
The virtues shall enroll 
Of that paternal soul ! 



SOME FOREIGN TRIBUTES TO LINCOLN 

From '' The Lives and Deeds of Our Self- 
made Men " ^ 

BY MRS. HARRIET BEECHER STOWE 

(1889) 

On the first of May, 1865, Sir George Grey, in 
the English House of Commons, moved an ad- 
dress to the Crown, to express the feelings of the 
House upon the assassination of Mr. Lincoln. In 
this address he said that he was convinced that Mr. 
Lincoln " in the hour of victory, and in the triumph 
of victory, would have shown that wise forbear- 
ance, and that generous consideration, which would 
have added tenfold lustre to the fame that he had 
already acquired, amidst the varying fortunes of 
the war." 

In seconding the second address, at the same time 
and place, Mr. Benjamin Disraeli said: "But in 
the character of the victim, and in the very acces- 
sories of his almost latest moments, there is some- 
thing so homely and so innocent that it takes the 
subject, as it were, out of the pomp of history, and 

'^ By permission of Dana Estes Company. 



FOREIGN TRIBUTES 203 

out of the ceremonial of diplomacy. It touches 
the heart of nations, and appeals to the domestic 
sentiments of mankind." 

In the House of Lords, Lord John Russell, in 
moving a similar address, observed : " President 
Lincoln was a man who, although he had not been 
distinguished before his election, had from that 
time displayed a character of so much integrity, 
sincerity and straightforwardness, and at the same 
time of so much kindness, that if any one could 
have been able to alleviate the pain and animosity 
which have prevailed during the civil war, I be- 
lieve President Lincoln was the man to have done 
so." And again, in speaking of the question of 
amending the Constitution so as to prohibit slavery, 
he said : " We must all feel that there again the 
death of President Lincoln deprives the United 
States of the man who was the leader on this 
subject." 

Mr. John Stuart Mill, the distinguished philoso- 
pher, in a letter to an American friend, used far 
stronger expressions than these guarded phrases of 
high officials. He termed Mr. Lincoln *' the great 
citizen who had afforded so noble an example of the 
qualities befitting the first magistrate of a free peo- 
ple, and who, in the most trying circumstances, had 
gradually won not only the admiration, but almost 
the personal affection of all who love freedom or 
appreciate simplicity or uprightness." 
• Professor Goldwin Smith writing to the London 
Daily News, began by saying, " It is difficult to 
measure the calamity which the United States and 



204 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

the world have sustained by the murder of Presi- 
dent Lincoln. The assassin has done his best to 
strike down mercy and moderation, of both of 
which this good and noble life was the mainstay." 
Senhor Rebello da Silva, a member of the Portu- 
guese Chamber of Peers, in moving a resolution on 
the death of Mr. Lincoln, thus outlined his char- 
acter : " He is truly great who rises to the loftiest 
heights from profound obscurity, relying solely on 
his own merits as did Napoleon, Washington, Lin- 
coln. For these arose to power and greatness, not 
through any favor or grace, by a chance cradle, or 
genealogy, but through the prestige of their own 
deeds, through the nobility which begins and ends 
with themselves — the sole offspring of their own 
works. . . . Lincoln was of this privileged 
class ; he belonged to this aristocracy. In infancy, 
his energetic soul was nourished by poverty. In 
youth, he learned through toil the love of liberty, 
and respect for the rights of man. Even to the 
age of twenty-two, educated in adversity, his hands 
made callous by honorable labor, he rested from 
the fatigues of the field, spelling out, in the pages 
of the Bible, in the lessons of the gospel, in the 
fugitive leaves of the daily journal — which the 
aurora opens, and the night disperses — the first 
rudiments of instruction, which his solitary medita- 
tions ripened. The chrysalis felt one day the ray 
of the sun, which called it to life, broke its involu- 
crum, and it launched forth fearlessly from the 
darkness of its humble cloister into the luminous 
spaces of its destiny. The farmer, day-laborer, 



FOREIGN TRIBUTES 205 

shepherd, like Cincinnatus, left the ploughshare in 
the half-broken furrow, and, legislator of his own 
State, and afterwards of the Great Republic, saw 
himself proclaimed in the tribunal the popular 
chief of several millions of people, the maintainer 
of the holy principle inaugurated by Wilberforce." 

There are some vague and some only partially 
correct statements in this diffuse passage; but it 
shows plainly enough how enthusiastically the 
Portuguese nobleman had admired the antique sim- 
plicity and strength of Mr. Lincoln's character. 

Dr. Merle d'Aubigne, the historian of the Refor- 
mation, writing to Mr. Fogg, U. S. Minister to 
Switzerland, said : " While not venturing to com- 
pare him. to the great sacrifice of Golgotha, which 
gave liberty to the captives, is it not just, in this 
hour, to recall the word of an apostle (I John iii, 
16) : * Hereby perceive we the love of God, be- 
cause he laid down his life for us : and we ought to 
lay down our lives for the brethren ? ' Who can 
say that the President did not lay down his life 
by the firmness of his devotion to a great duty? 
The name of Lincoln will remain one of the great- 
est that history has to inscribe on its annals. 
. . . Among the legacies which Lincoln leaves 
to us, we shall all regard as the most precious, his 
spirit of equity, of moderation, and of peace, ac- 
cording to which he will still preside, if I may so 
speak, over the restoration of your great nation." 

The " Democratic Association " of Florence, ad- 
dressed '* to the Free People of the United States," 
a letter, in which they term Mr. Lincoln *' the 



2o6 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

honest, the magnanimous citizen, the most worthy 
chief magistrate of your glorious Federation." 

The eminent French liberal, M. Edouard Labou- 
laye, in a speech showing a remarkably just under- 
standing and extremely broad views with respect 
to the affairs and the men of the United States, 
said : " Mr. Lincoln was one of those heroes who 
are ignorant of themselves; his thoughts will reign 
after him. The name of Washington has already 
been pronounced, and I think with reason. Doubt- 
less Mr. Lincoln resembled Franklin more than 
Washington. By his origin, his arch good nature, 
his ironical good sense, and his love of anecdotes 
and jesting, he was of the same blood as the printer 
of Philadelphia. But it is nevertheless true that 
in less than a century, America has passed through 
two crises in which its liberty might have been 
lost, if it had not had honest men at its head; and 
that each time it has had the happiness to meet 
the man best fitted to serve it. If Washingon 
founded the Union, Lincoln has saved it. History 
will draw together and unite those two names. A 
single word explains Mr. Lincoln's whole life: it 
was Duty. Never did he put himself forward; 
never did he think of himself; never did he seek 
one of those ingenious combinations which puts 
the head of a state in bold relief, and enhances his 
importance at the expense of the country ; his only 
ambition, his only thought was faithfully to fulfil 
the mission which his fellow-citizens had entrusted 
to him. . . . His inaugural address, March 
4, 1865, shows us what progress had been made in 



FOREIGN TRIBUTES 207 

his soul. This piece of famiHar eloquence is a 
master-piece; it is the testament of a patriot. I 
do not believe that any eulogy of the President 
would equal this page on which he had depicted 
himself in all his greatness and all his simplicity. 
. . . History is too often only a school of im- 
morality. It shows us the victory of force or 
stratagem much more than the success of justice, 
moderation, and probity. It is too often only the 
apotheosis of triumphant selfishness. There are 
noble and great exceptions; happy those who can 
increase the number, and thus bequeath a noble 
and beneficent example to posterity! Mr. Lin- 
coln is among these. He would willingly have re- 
peated, after Franklin, that * falsehood and artifice 
are the practice of fools who have not wit enough 
to be honest.' All his private life, and all his po- 
litical life, were inspired and directed by this pro- 
found faith in the omnipotence of virtue. It is 
through this, again, that he deserves to be com- 
pared with Washington ; it is through this that he 
will remain in history with the most glorious name 
that can be merited by the head of a free people — 
a name given him by his cotemporaries, and which 
will be preserved to him by posterity — that of 
Honest Abraham Lincoln." 

A letter from the well-known French historian, 
Henri Martin, to the Paris Siecle, contained the fol- 
lowing passages : " Lincoln will remain the austere 
and sacred personification of a great epoch, the 
most faithful expression of democracy. This 
simple and upright man, prudent and strong, ele- 



2o8 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

vated step by step from the artisan's bench to the 
command of a great nation, and always without 
parade and without effort, at the height of his 
position ; executing without precipitation, without 
flourish, and with invincible good sense, the most 
colossal acts ; giving to the world this decisive ex- 
ample of the civil power in a republic; directing a 
gigantic war, without free institutions being for 
an instant compromised or threatened by military 
usurpation; dying, finally, at the moment when, 
after conquering, he was intent on pacification, 
. . . this man will stand out, in the traditions 
of his country and the world, as an incarnation 
of the people, and of modern democracy itself. 
The great work of emancipation had to be sealed, 
therefore, with the blood of the just, even as it was 
inaugurated with the blood of the just. The tragic 
history of the abolition of slavery, which opened 
with the gibbet of John Brown, will close with the 
assassination of Lincoln. 

" And now let him rest by the side of Washington, 
as the second founder of the great Republic. 
European democracy is present in spirit at his 
funeral, as it voted in its heart for his re-election, 
and applauded the victory in the midst of which 
he passed away. It will wish with one accord to 
associate itself with the monument that America 
will raise to him upon the capitol of prostrate 
slavery." 

The London Globe, in commenting on Mr. Lin- 
coln's assassination, said that he *' had come nobly 
through a great ordeal. He had extorted the ad- 



FOREIGN TRIBUTES 209 

miration even of his opponents, at least on this 
side of the water. They had come to admire, re- 
luctantly, his jEirmness, honesty, fairness and 
sagacity. He tried to do, and had done, what he 
considered his duty, with magnanimity." 

The London Express said, '' He had tried to 
show the world how great, how moderate, and how 
true he could be, in the moment of his great 
triumph." 

The Liverpool Post said, " If ever there was a 
man who in trying times avoided offenses, it was 
Mr. Lincoln. If there ever was a leader in a civil 
contest who shunned acrimony and eschewed pas- 
sion, it was he. In a time of much cant and af- 
fectation he was simple, unaffected, true, trans- 
parent. In a season of many mistakes he was 
never known to be wrong. ... By a happy 
tact, not often so felicitously blended with pure evi- 
dence of soul, Abraham Lincoln knew when to 
speak, and never spoke too early or too late. 
. . . The memory of his statesmanship, trans- 
lucent in the highest degree, and above the average, 
and openly faithful, more than almost any of this 
age has witnessed, to fact and right, will live in 
the hearts and minds of the whole Anglo-Saxon 
race, as one of the noblest examples of that race's 
highest qualities. Add to all this that Abraham 
Lincoln was the humblest and pleasantest of men, 
that he had raised himself from nothing, and that 
to the last no grain of conceit or ostentation was 
found in him, and there stands before the world a 
man whose like we shall not soon look upon again." 



210 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

In the remarks of M. Rouher, the French 
Minister, in the Legislative Assembly, on submit- 
ting to that Assembly the official despatch of the 
French Foreign Minister of the Charge at Wash- 
ington, M. Rouher remarked, of Mr. Lincoln's per- 
sonal character, that he had exhibited " that calm 
firmness and indomitable energy which belong to 
strong minds, and are the necessary conditions of 
the accomplishment of great duties. In the hour 
of victory he exhibited generosity, moderation and 
conciliation.'* 

And in the despatch, which was signed by Mr. 
Drouyn de L'Huys, were the following expressions : 
" Abraham Lincoln exhibited, in the exercise of 
the power placed in his hands, the most substantial 
qualities. In him, firmness of character was allied 
to elevation of principle. ... In reviewing 
these last testimonies to his exalted wisdom, as well 
as the examples of good sense, of courage, and of 
patriotism, which he has given, history will not 
hesitate to place him in the rank of citizens who 
have the most honored their country." 

In the Prussian Lower House, Herr Loewes, in j 
speaking of the news of the assassination, said 
that Mr. Lincoln " performed his duties without 
pomp or ceremony, and relied on that dignity of 
his inner self alone, which is far above rank, orders 
and titles. He was a faithful servant, not less of 
his own commonwealth than of civilization, free- 
dom and humanity." 



THE GETTYSBURG ODE 211 

From 'THE GETTYSBURG ODE' 

BY BAYARD TAYLOR 

After the eyes that looked, the Hps that spake 
Here, from the shadows of impending death, 

Those words of solemn breath. 

What voice may fitly break 
The silence, doubly hallowed, left by him? 
We can but bow the head, with eyes grown dim, 

And as a Nation's litany, repeat 
The phrase his martyrdom hath made complete, 
Noble as then, but now more sadly sweet: 
" Let us, the Living, rather dedicate 
Ourselves to the unfinished work, which they 
Thus far advanced so nobly on its way. 

And saved the perilled State! 
Let us, upon this field where they, the brave, 
Their last full measure of devotion gave, 
Highly resolve they have not died in vain! — 
That, under God, the Nation's later birth 

Of Freedom, and the people's gain 
Of their own Sovereignty, shall never wane 
And perish from the circle of the earth ! " 
From such a perfect text, shall Song aspire 

To light her faded fire. 
And into wandering music turn 
Its virtue, simple, sorrowful, and stern? 
His voice all elegies anticipated; 

For, whatsoe'er the strain. 

We hear that one refrain : 



212 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

" We consecrate ourselves to them, the Conse- 
crated ! " 



TRIBUTES 

Thank God for Abraham Lincoln ! However 
lightly the words may sometimes pass your lips, 
let us speak them now and always of this man 
sincerely, solemnly, reverently, as so often dying 
soldiers and bereaved women and little children 
spoke them. Thank God for Abraham Lincoln — 
for the Lincoln who died and whose ashes rest at 
Springfield — for the Lincoln who lives in the 
hearts of the American people — in their widened 
sympathies and uplifted ideals. Thank God for 
the work he did, is doing, and is to do. Thank 
God for Abraham Lincoln. 

James Willis deed. 



Let us not then try to compare and to measure 
him with others, and let us not quarrel as to 
whether he was greater or less than Washington, 
as to whether either of them set to perform the 
other's task would have succeeded in it, or, per- 
chance would have failed. Not only is the com- 
petition itself an ungracious one, but to make Lin- 
coln a competitor is foolish and useless. He was 
the most individual man who ever lived; let us 
be content with this fact. Let us take him simply 



TRIBUTES 213 

as Abraham Lincoln, singular and solitary, as we 
all see that he was; let us be thankful if we can 
make a niche big enough for him among the world's 
heroes, without worrying ourselves about the pro- 
portion which it may bear to other niches; and 
there let him remain forever, lonely, as in his 
strange lifetime, impressive, mysterious, unmeas- 
ured, and unsolved. 

John T. Morse, Jr. 



Those who are raised high enough to be able 
to look over the stone walls, those who are in- 
telligent enough to take a broader view of things 
than that which is bounded by the lines of any one 
State or section, understand that the unity of the 
nation is of the first importance, and are prepared 
to make those sacrifices and concessions, within 
the bounds of loyalty, which are necessary for its 
maintenance, and to cherish that temper of frater- 
nal affection which alone can fill the form of na- 
tional existence with the warm blood of life. The 
first man after the Civil War, to recognize this 
great principle and to act upon it was the head 
of the nation, — that large and generous soul whose 
worth was not fully felt until he was taken from 
his people by the stroke of the assassin, in the very 
hour when his presence was most needed for the 
completion of the work of reunion. 

Henry Van Dyke. 



214. LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

LINCOLN 

From MacMillan's Magazine, England 

LINCOLN! When men would name a man 
Just, unperturbed, magnanimous, 

Tried in the lowest seat of all. 

Tried in the chief seat of the house — 

Lincoln! When men would name a man 
Who wrought the great work of his age, 

Who fought and fought the noblest fight, 
And marshalled it from stage to stage. 

Victorious, out of dusk and dark, 
And into dawn and on till day, 

Most humble when the paeans rang, 
Least rigid when the enemy lay 

Prostrated for his feet to tread — 
This name of Lincoln will they name, 

A name revered, a name of scorn. 
Of scorn to sundry, not to fame. 

Lincoln, the man who freed the slave; 

Lincoln whom never self enticed; 
Slain Lincoln, worthy found to die 

A soldier of his captain Christ. 



LINCOLN 215 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

This man whose homely face you look upon, i 
Was one of Nature's masterful, great men; 
Born with strong arms, that unfought battles 

won, 
Direct of speech, and cunning with the pen, , 
Chosen for large designs, he had the art 
Of winning with his humor, and he went 
Straight to his mark, which was the human heart ; 
Wise, too, for what he could not break he bent. 
Upon his back a more than Atlas-load, 
The burden of the Commonwealth, was laid; 
He stooped, and rose up to it, though the road 
Shot suddenly downwards, not a whit dismayed. 
Hold, warriors, councillors, kings! All now 

give place 
To this dead Benefactor of the race ! 

Richard Henry Stoddard. 



LINCOLN 



BY EDNA DEAN PROCTOR 

Now must the storied Potomac 

Laurels for ever divide. 
Now to the Sangamon fameless 

Give of its century's pride. 

By permission of Houghton, MifHin & Company, 



2i6 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

Sangamon, stream of the prairies. 

Placidly westward that flows, 
Far in whose city of silence 

Calm he has sought his repose. 
Over our Washington's river 

Sunrise beams rosy and fair, 
Sunset on Sangamon fairer — 

Father and martyr lies there. 

Kings under pyramids slumber, 

Sealed in the Lybian sands; 
Princes in gorgeous cathedrals 

Decked with the spoil of the lands 
Kinglier, princelier sleeps he 

Couched 'mid the prairies serene, 
Only the turf and the willow 

Him and God's heaven between! 
Temple nor column to cumber 

Verdure and bloom of the sod — 
So, in the vale by Beth-peor, 

Moses was buried of God. 

Break into blossom, O prairies! 

Snowy and golden and red; 
Peers of the Palestine HHes 

Heap for your glorious dead! 
Roses as fair as of Sharon, 

Branches as stately as palm, 
Odors as rich as the spices — 

Cassia and aloes and balm — 
Mary the loved and Salome, 

All with a gracious accord, 
Ere the first glow of the morning 

Brought to the tomb of the Lord 



LINCOLN 217 

Wind of the West ! breathe around him 

Soft as the saddened air's sigh 
When to the summit of Pisgah 

Moses had journeyed to die. 
Clear as its anthem that floated 

Wide o'er the Moabite plain, 
Low with the wail of the people 

Blending its burdened refrain. 
Rarer, O Wind! and diviner, — 

Sweet as the breeze that went by 
When, over Olivet's mountain, 

Jesus was lost in the sky. 

Not for thy sheaves nor savannas 

Crown we thee, proud Illinois! 
Here in his grave is thy grandeur; 

Born of his sorrow thy joy. 
Only the tomb by Mount Zion 

Hewn for the Lord do we hold 
Dearer than his in thy prairies, 

Girdled with harvests of gold. 
Still for the world, through the ages 

Wreathing with glory his brow, 
He shall be Liberty's Saviour — 

Freedom's Jerusalem thou! 



2i8 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 



WHEN LILACS LAST IN THE DOORYARD 
BLOOM'D ^ 

BY WALT WHITMAN 
I 

When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd, 

And the great star early droop'd in the western 

sky in the night, 
I mourn'd, and yet shall mourn with ever-return- 
ing spring. 

Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me you bring, 
Lilac blooming perennial and drooping star in the 

west, 
And thought of him I love. 

II 

O powerful western fallen star! 

O shades of night — O moody, tearful night ! 

O great star disappear'd — O the black murk that 
hides the star! 

O cruel hands that hold me powerless — O help- 
less soul of me! 

O harsh surrounding cloud that will not free my 
soul. 

^ By permission of David McKay. 



WHEN LILACS BLOOM'D 219 

III 

In the dooryard fronting an old farm-house near the 

white-wash'd palings, 

Stands the lilac-bush tall-growing with heart- 
shaped leaves of rich green, 

With many a pointed blossom rising delicate, with 
the perfume strong I love, 

With every leaf a miracle — and from this bush 

in the dooryard, 
With delicate-color'd blossoms and heart-shaped 

leaves of rich green, 
A sprig with its flower I break. 

IV 

In the swamp in secluded recesses, 

A shy and hidden bird is warbling a song. 

Solitary the thrush, 

The hermit withdrawn to himself, avoiding the 

settlements, 
Sings by himself a song. 

Song of the bleeding throat, 

Death's outlet song of life (for well, dear brother, 

I know. 
If thou wast not granted to sing thou would'st 

surely die). 

V 

Over the breast of the spring, the land, amid cities, 
Amid lanes and through old woods, where lately 



220 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

the violets peep'd from the ground, spotting 

the gray debris, 
Amid the grass in the fields each side of the lanes, 

passing the endless grass. 
Passing the yellow-spear'd wheat, every grain from 

its shroud in the dark-brown fields uprisen, 
Passing the apple-tree blows of white and pink in 

the orchards, 
Carrying a corpse to where it shall rest in the grave, 
Night and day journeys a coffin. 

VI 

Coffin that passes through lanes and streets. 

Through day and night with the great cloud dark- 
ening the land, 

With the pomp of the inloop'd flags with the cities 
draped in black, 

With the show of the States themselves as of crape- 
veil'd women standing. 

With processions long and winding and the flam- 
beaus of the night. 

With the countless torches lit, with the silent sea 
of faces and the unbared heads, 

With the waiting depot, the arriving coffin, and the 
sombre faces. 

With dirges through the night, with the thousand 
voices rising strong and solemn. 

With all the mournful voices of the dirges pour'd 
around the coffin. 

The dim-lit churches and the shuddering organs — 
where amid these you journey, 



WHEN LILACS BLOOM'D 221 

With the tolling, tolling bells' perpetual clang. 
Here, coffin that slowly passes, 
I give you my sprig of lilac. 

vn 

(Nor for you, for one alone. 

Blossoms and branches green to coffins all I bring, 
For fresh as the morning, thus would I chant a 
song for you, O sane and sacred death. 

All over bouquets of roses, 

O death, I cover you over with roses and early 

lilies. 
But mostly and now the lilac that blooms the first, 
Copious I break, I break the sprigs from the bushes. 
With loaded arms I come, pouring for you. 
For you and the coffins all of you, O death). 

vni 

O western orb sailing the heaven. 

Now I know what you must have meant as a 

rqonth since I walk'd. 
As I walk'd in silence the transparent shadowy 

night, 
As I saw you had something to tell as you bent to 

me night after night, 
As you droop'd from the sky low down as if to 

my side (while the other stars all look'd on), 
As we wander'd together the solemn night (for 

something, I know not what, kept me from 

sleep), 



222 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

As the night advanced, and I saw on the rim of 

the west how full you were of woe, 
As I stood on the rising ground in the breeze in the 

cool transparent night. 
As I watch'd where you pass'd and was lost in the 

netherward black of the night. 
As my soul in its trouble dissatisfied sank, as where 

you, sad orb, 
Concluded, dropt in the night, and was gone. 

IX 

Sing on there in the swamp, 

singer, bashful and tender, I hear your notes, I 

hear your call, 

1 hear, I come presently, I understand you. 

But a moment I linger, for the lustrous star has 

detained me. 
The star, my departing comrade holds and detains 

me. 

X 

O how shall I warble myself for the dead one there 

I loved? 
And how shall I deck my song for the large sweet 

soul that has gone? 
And what shall my perfume be for the grave of him 

I love? 
Sea-winds blown from east and west, 
Blown from the Eastern sea and blown from the 

Western sea, till there on the prairies meeting. 
These and with these and the breath of my chant, 
I'll perfume the grave of him I love. 



WHEN LILACS BLOOM'D 223 

XI 

O what shall I hang on the chamber walls? 

And what shall the pictures be that I hang on the 

walls, 
To adorn the burial-house of him I love? 

Pictures of growing spring and farms and homes, 
With the Fourth-month eve at sundown, and the 

gray smoke lucid and bright, 
With floods of the yellow gold of the gorgeous, 

indolent, sinking sun, burning, expanding the 

air, 
With the fresh sweet herbage under foot, and the 

pale green leaves of the trees prolific. 
In the distance the flowing glaze, the breast of the 

river, with a wind-dapple here and there. 
With ranging hills on the banks, with many a line 

against the sky, and shadows. 
And the city at hand with dwellings so dense, and 

stacks of chimneys. 
And all the scenes of life and the workshops, and 

the workmen homeward returning. 

XII 

Lo, body and soul — this land, 

My own Manhattan with spires, and the sparkling 

and hurrying tides, and the ships. 
The varied and ample land, the South and the 

North in the light, Ohio's shores and flashing 

Missouri, 
And ever the far-spreading prairies cover'd with 

grass and corn. 



224 LINCOLN^S BIRTHDAY 

Lo, the most excellent sun so calm and haughty, 
The violet and purple morn with just-felt breezes, 
The gentle soft-born measureless light, 
The miracle spreading, bathing all, the fulfill'd 

noon, 
The coming eve delicious, the welcome night and 

the stars. 
Over my cities shining all, enveloping man and 

land. 

XIII 

Sing on, sing on, you gray-brown bird, 

Sing from the swamps, the recesses, pour your 

chant from the bushes, 
Limitless out of the dusk, out of the cedars and 

pines. 

Sing on, dearest brother, warble your reedy song. 
Loud human song, with voice of uttermost woe. 

O liquid and free and tender ! 

O wild and loose to my soul — O wondrous singer ! 

You only I hear — yet the star holds me (but will 

soon depart), 
Yet the lilac with mastering odor holds me. 

XIV 

Now while I sat in the day and look'd forth. 

In the close of the day with its light and the fields 

of spring, and the farmers preparing their 

crops, 



WHEN LILACS BLOOM'D 225 

In the large unconscious scenery of my land with 

its lakes and forests, 
In the heavenly aerial beauty (after the perturb'd 

winds and the storms), 
Under the arching heavens of the afternoon swift 

passing, and the voices of children and women, 
The many-moving sea-tides, and I saw the ships 

how they sail'd, 
And the summer approaching with richness, and 

the fields all busy with labor, 
And the infinite separate houses, how they all went 

on, each with its meals and minutia of daily 

usages. 
And the streets, how their throbbings throbb'd, and 

the cities pent — lo, then and there, 
Falling upon them all and among them all, en- 
veloping me with the rest, 
Appear'd the cloud, appear'd the long black trail, 
And I knew death, its thought, and the sacred 

knowledge of death. 
Then with the knowledge of death as walking one 

side of me, 
And the thought of death close-walking the other 

side of me. 
And in the middle as with companions, and as 

holding the hands of companions, 
I fled forth to the hiding, receiving night that 

talks not, 
Down to the shores of the water, the path by the 

swamp in the dimness. 
To the solemn shadowy cedars and ghostly pines 

so still. 



226 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

And the singer so shy to the rest receiv'd me, 
The gray-brown bird I know receiv'd us comrades 

three, 
And he sang the carol of death, and a verse for him 

I love. 

From deep secluded recesses, 

From the fragrant cedars and the ghostly pines 

so still, 
Came the carol of the bird. 

And the charm of the carol rapt me, 

As I held as if by their hands my comrades in the 

night, 
And the voice of my spirit tallied the song of the 

bird. 

Come, lovely and soothing death, 
Undulate round the world, serenely arriving, ar- 
riving, 
In the day, in the night, to all, to each, 
Sooner or later, delicate death. 

Prais'd he the fathomless universe. 

For life and joy, and for objects and knowledge 
curious. 

And for love, szveet love — hut praise! praise! 
praise! 

For the sure-enzvinding arms of cool-enfolding 
death. 

Dark mother, ahvays gliding near with soft feet, 

Have none chanted for thee a chant of fullest wel- 
come? 



WHEN LILACS BLOOM'D 227 

Then I chant it for thee, I glorify thee above all, 
I bring thee a song that when thou must indeed 
come, come unfalteringly. 

Approach, strong deliveress, 

When it is so, when thou hast taken them I joy- 
ously sing the dead. 
Lost in the loving, boating ocean of thee, 
Laved in the Hood of thy bliss, death. 

From me to thee, glad serenades. 

Dances for thee I propose saluting thee, adorn- 
ments and f eastings for thee, 

And the sights of the open landscape and the high- 
spread sky are fitting. 

And life and the fields, and the huge and thought- 
ftd night. 

The night in silence under many a star. 

The ocean shore and the husky whispering wave 
whose voice I know. 

And the soul turning to thee, O vast and well- 
veil' d death, 

And the body gratefully nestling close to thee. 

Over the tree-tops I float thee a song. 

Over the rising and sinking waves, over the myriad 

fields and the prairies wide, 
Over the dense-pack' d cities all and the teeming 

wharves and zvays, 
I float this carol with joy, with joy to thee, O death. 



228 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

XV 

To the tally of my soul, 

Loud and strong kept up the gray-brown bird, 
With pure dehberate notes spreading, filHng the 
night. 

Loud in the pines and cedars dim, 
Clear in the freshness moist and the swamp-per- 
fume. 
And I with my comrades there in the night. 

While my sight that was bound in my eyes un- 
closed, 
As to long panoramas of visions. 

And I saw askant the armies, 

I saw as in noiseless dreams hundreds of battle- 
flags, 

Borne through the smoke of the battles and pierc'd 
with missiles I saw them, 

And carried hither and yon through the smoke, 
and torn and bloody. 

And at last but a few shreds left on the staffs (and 
all in silence). 

And the staffs all splinter'd and broken. 

I saw battle-corpses, myriads of them. 

And the white skeletons of young men, I saw them, 

I saw the debris and debris of all the slain soldiers 

of the war, 
But I saw they were not as was thought. 
They themselves were fully at rest, they suffer'd 

not. 



WHEN LILACS BLOOM'D 229 

The living remain'd and suffer'd, the mother suf- 
fered, 
And the armies that remain'd suffer'd. 

XVI 

Passing the visions, passing the night, 

Passing, unloosing the hold of my comrade's hands, 

Passing the song of the hermit bird and the tally- 
ing song of my soul, 

Victorious song, death's outlet song, yet varying 
ever-altering song, 

As low and wailing, yet clear the notes, rising and 
falling, flooding the night, 

Sadly sinking and fainting, as warning and warn- 
ing, and yet again bursting with joy. 

Covering the earth and filling the spread of the 
heaven. 

As that powerful psalm in the night I heard from 
recesses, 

Passing, I leave thee lilac with heart-shaped leaves, 

I leave thee there in the door-yard, blooming, re- 
turning with spring. 

I cease from song for thee, 

From my gaze on thee in the west, fronting the 

west, communing with thee, 
O comrade lustrous with silver face in the night. 

Yet each to keep and all, retrievements out of the 

night. 
The song, the wondrous chant of the grey-brown 

bird, 



230 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

And the tallying chant, the echo arous'd in my 
soul, 

With the lustrous and drooping star with the coun- 
tenance full of woe, 

With the holders holding my hand nearing the call 
of the bird, 

Comrades mine and I in the midst, and their mem- 
ory ever to keep, for the dead I loved so well. 

For the sweetest, wisest soul of all my days and 
lands — and this for his dear sake. 

Lilac and star and bird twined with the chant of 
my soul. 

There in the fragrant pines and cedars, dusk and 
dim. 



I 



VII 
THE WHOLE MAN 



LINCOLN, THE MAN OF THE PEOPLE ^ 

BY EDWIN MARKHAM 

Revised especially for this volume. 

When the Norn Mother saw the Whirlwind Hour 
Greatening and darkening as it hurried on, 
She left the Heaven of Heroes and came down 
To make a man to meet the mortal need. 
She took the tried clay of the common road — 
Clay warm yet with the genial heat of Earth, 
Dashed through it all a strain of prophecy; 
Temipered the heap with thrill of human tears ; 
Then mixed a laughter with the serious stuff. 
Into the shape she breathed a flame to light 
That tender, tragic, ever-changing face. 
Here was a man to hold against the world, 
A man to match the mountains and the sea. 

The color of the ground was in him, the red earth 
The smack and smell of elemental things — 
The rectitude and patience of the rocks; 
The good-will of the rain that falls for all ; 
The courage of the bird that dares the sea ; 
The gladness of the wind that shakes the corn ; 
The friendly welcome of the wayside well ; 
The mercy of the snow that hides all scars ; 
The undelaying justice of the light 
That gives as freely to the shrinking flower 

1 All rights reserved by the author. 



234 LINCOLN^S BIRTHDAY 

As to the great oak flaring to the wind — 
To the grave's low hill as to the Matterhorn 
That shoulders out the sky. 

Born of the ground, 
The Great West nursed him on her rugged knees. 
Her rigors keyed the sinews of his will; 
The strength of virgin forests braced his mind ; 
The hush of spacious prairies stilled his soul. 
The tools were his first teachers, kindly stern. 
The plow, the flail, the maul, the echoing ax 
Taught him their homely wisdom, and their peace. 
A rage for knowledge drove his restless mind : 
He fed his spirit with the bread of books, 
He slaked his thirst at all the wells of thought. 
Hunger and hardship, penury and pain 
Waylaid his youth and wrestled for his life. 
They came to master, but he made them serve. 

From prairie cabin up to Capitol, 

One fire was on his spirit, one resolve — 

To strike the stroke that rounds the perfect star. 

The grip that swung the ax on Sangamon 

Was on the pen that spelled Emancipation. 

He built the rail-pile as he built the State, 

Pouring his splendid strength through every blow, 

The conscience of him testing every stroke, 

To make his deed the measure of a man. 

So came the Captain with the thinking heart; 
And when the judgment thunders split the house, 
Wrenching the rafters from their ancient rest, 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 235 

He held the ridgepole up, and spiked again 
The rafters of the Home. He held his place — 
Held the long purpose like a growing tree — 
Held on through blame and faltered not at praise. 
And when he fell in whirlwind, he went down 
As when a lordly cedar green with boughs 
Goes down with a great shout upon the hills, 
And leaves a lonesome place against the sky. 



From the Memorial Address to Congress 
on the 

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ABRAHAM 
LINCOLN 

BY GEORGE BANCROFT 
Senators, Representatives of America: 

That God rules in the affairs of men is as certain 
as any truth of physical science. On the great 
moving power which is from the beginning hangs 
the world of the senses and the world of thought 
and action. Eternal wisdom marshals the great 
procession of the nations, working in patient con- 
tinuity through the ages, never halting and never 
abrupt, encompassing all events in its oversight, and 
ever effecting its will, though mortals may slumber 
in apathy or oppose with madness. Kings are lifted 
up or thrown down, nations come and go, republics 
flourish and wither, dynasties pass away like a 



236 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

tale that is told; but nothing is by chance, though 
men, in their ignorance of causes, may think so. 
The deeds of time are governed, as well as judged, 
by the decrees of eternity. The caprice of fleet- 
ing existences bends to the immovable omnipo- 
tence, which plants its foot on all the centuries and 
has neither change of purpose nor repose. Some- 
times, like a messenger through the thick darkness 
of night, it steps along mysterious ways; but when 
the hour strikes for a people, or for mankind, to 
pass into a new form of being, unseen hands draw 
the bolts from the gates of futurity; an all-subsid- 
ing influence prepares the minds of men for the 
coming revolution ; those who plan resistance find 
themselves in conflict with the will of Providence 
rather than with human devices ; and all hearts and 
all understandings, most of all the opinions and in- 
fluences of the unwilling, are wonderfully attracted 
and compelled to bear forward the change, which 
becomes more an obedience to the law of universal 
nature than submission to the arbitrament of man. 
In the fulness of time a republic rose up in the 
wilderness of America. Thousands of years had 
passed away before this child of the ages could be 
born. From whatever there was of good in the 
systems of former centuries she drew her nourish- 
ment; the wrecks of the past were her warnings. 
With the deepest sentiment of faith fixed in her 
inmost nature, she disenthralled religion from bon- 
dage to temporal power, that her worship might 
be worship only in spirit and in truth. The wis- 
dom which had passed from India through Greece, 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 237 

with what Greece had added of her own; the 
jurisprudence of Rome; the mediaeval municipali- 
ties; the Teutonic method of representation; the 
political experience of England ; the benignant wis- 
dom of the expositors of the law of nature and of 
nations in France and Holland, all shed on her 
their selectest influence. She washed the gold of 
political wisdom from the sands wherever it was 
found; she cleft it from the rocks; she gleaned it 
among ruins. Out of all the discoveries of states- 
men and sages, out of all the experience of past 
human life, she compiled a perennial political phi- 
losophy, the primordial principles of national eth- 
ics. The wise men of Europe sought the best 
government in a mixture of monarchy, aristocracy, 
and democracy; America went behind these names 
to extract from them the vital elements of social 
forms, and blend them harmoniously in the free 
commonwealth, which comes nearest to the illus- 
tration of the natural equality of all men. She 
intrusted the guardianship of established rights to 
law, the movements of reform to the spirit of the 
people, and drew her force from the happy recon- 
ciliation of both. 

Republics had heretofore been limited to small 
cantons, or cities and their dependencies ; America, 
doing that of which the like had not before been 
known upon the earth, or believed by kings and 
statesmen to be possible, extended her republic 
across a continent. Under her auspices the vine 
of liberty took deep root and filled the land; the 
hills were covered with its shadow, its boughs were 



238 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

like the goodly cedars, and reached unto both 
oceans. The fame of this only daughter of free- 
dom went out into all the lands of the earth; from 
her the human race drew hope. 

Neither hereditary monarchy nor hereditary ar- 
istocracy planted itself on our soil ; the only heredi- 
tary condition that fastened itself upon us was 
servitude. Nature works in sincerity, and is ever 
true to its law. The bee hives honey ; the viper 
distils poison; the vine stores its juices, and so do 
the poppy and the upas. In like manner every 
thought and every action ripens its seed, each ac- 
cording to its kind. In the individual man, and 
still more in a nation, a just idea gives life, and 
progress, and glory ; a false conception portends 
disaster, shame, and death. A hundred and twenty 
years ago a West Jersey Quaker wrote : " This 
trade of importing slaves is dark gloominess hang- 
ing over the land ; the consequences will be griev- 
ous to posterity." At the North the growth of 
slavery was arrested by natural causes; in the re- 
gion nearest the tropics it throve rankly, and 
worked itself into the organism of the rising States. 
Virginia stood between the two, with soil, and 
climate, and resources demanding free labor, yet 
capable of the profitable employment of the slave. 
She was the land of great statesmen, and they saw 
the danger of her being whelmed under the rising 
flood in time to struggle against the delusions of 
avarice and pride. Ninety-four years ago the 
legislature of Virginia addressed the British king, 
saying that the trade in slaves was " of great in- 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 239 

humanity," was opposed to the " security and hap- 
piness " of their constituents, '' would in time have 
the most destructive influence," and " endanger their 
very existence." And the king answered them 
that, '' upon pain of his highest displeasure, the 
importation of slaves should not be in any respect 
obstructed." " Pharisaical Britain," wrote Frank- 
lin in behalf of Virginia, ** to pride thyself in set- 
ting free a single slave that happened to land on 
thy coasts, while thy laws continue a traffic 
whereby so many hundreds of thousands are 
dragged into a slavery that is entailed on their pos- 
terity." " A serious view of this subject," said 
Patrick Henry in 1773, " gives a gloomy prospect 
to future times." In the same year George Mason 
wrote to the legislature of Virginia : " The laws of 
impartial Providence may avenge our injustice 
upon our posterity." Comforming his conduct to 
his convictions, Jefferson, in Virginia and in the 
Continental Congress, with the approval of Ed- 
mund Pendleton, branded the slave-trade as piracy ; 
and he fixed in the Declaration of Independence, 
as the corner-stone of America : " All men are 
created equal, with an unalienable right to liberty." 
On the first organization of temporary govern- 
ments for the continental domain, Jefferson, but 
for the default of New Jersey, would, in 1784, 
have consecrated every part of that territory to 
freedom. In the formation of the national Con- 
stitution, Virginia, opposed by a part of New Eng- 
land, vainly struggled to abolish the slave trade 
at once and forever: and when the ordinance of 



240 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

1787 was introduced by Nathan Dane without the 
clause prohibiting slavery, it was through the fa- 
vorable disposition of Virginia and the South that 
the clause of Jefferson was restored, and the whole 
northwestern territory — all the territory that then 
belonged to the nation — was reserved for the 
labor of freemen. 

The hope prevailed in Virginia that the abolition 
of the slave-trade would bring with it the gradual 
abolition of slavery; but the expectation was 
doomed to disappointment. In supporting incipi- 
ent measures for emancipation, Jefferson encoun- 
tered difficulties greater than he could overcome, 
and, after vain wrestlings, the words that broke 
from him, *' I tremble for my country when I 
reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot 
sleep forever," were words of despair. It was the 
desire of Washington's heart that Virginia should 
remove slavery by a public act; and as the pros- 
pects of a general emancipation grew more and 
more dim, he, in utter hopelessness of the action of 
the State, did all that he could by bequeathing free- 
dom to his own slaves. Good and true men had, 
from the days of 1776, suggested the colonizing of 
the negro in the home of his ancestors ; but the idea 
of colonization was thought to increase the difficulty 
of emancipation, and, in spite of strong support, 
while it accomplished much good for Africa, it 
proved impracticable as a remedy at home. Madi- 
son, who in early life disliked slavery so much that 
he wished " to depend as little as possible on the 
labor of slaves " ; Madison, who held that where 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 241 

slavery exists " the republican theory becomes falla- 
cious " ; Madison, who in the last years of his life 
would not consent to the annexation of Texas, lest 
his countrymen should fill it with slaves; Madison, 
who said, " slavery is the greatest evil under which 
the nation labors — a portentous evil — an evil, 
moral, political, and economical — a sad blot on 
our free country " — went mournfully into old age 
with the cheerless words : " No satisfactory plan 
has yet been devised for taking out the stain." 

The men of the Revolution passed away; a new 
generation sprang up, impatient that an institution 
to which they clung should be condemned as in- 
human, unwise, and unjust. In the throes of dis- 
content at the self-reproach of their fathers, and 
blinded by the lustre of wealth to be acquired by 
the culture of a new staple, they devised the theory 
that slavery, which they would not abolish, was not 
evil, but good. They turned on the friends of 
colonization, and confidently demanded : " Why 
take black men from a civilized and Christian 
country, where their labor is a source of immense 
gain, and a power to control the markets of the 
world, and send them to a land of ignorance, idol- 
atry, and indolence, which was the home of their 
forefathers, but not theirs? Slavery is a blessing. 
Were they not in their ancestral land naked, 
scarcely lifted above brutes, ignorant of the course 
of the sun, controlled by nature? And in their 
new abode have they not been taught to know the 
difference of the seasons, to plough, and plant, and 
reap, to drive oxen, to tame the horse, to exchange 



242 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

their scanty dialect for the richest of all the lan- 
guages among men, and the stupid adoration of 
follies for the purest religion? And since slavery 
is good for the blacks, it is good for their masters, 
bringing opulence and the opportunity of educat- 
ing a race. The slavery of the black is good in it- 
self; he shall serve the white man forever." And 
nature, which better understood the quality of 
fleeting interest and passion, laughed as it caught 
the echo, " man " and " forever ! " 

A regular development of pretensions followed 
the new declaration with logical consistency. 
Under the old declaration every one of the States 
had retained, each for itself, the right of manu- 
mitting all slaves by an ordinary act of legislation ; 
now the power of the people over servitude 
through their legislatures was curtailed, and the 
privileged class was swift in imposing legal and 
constitutional obstructions of the people themselves. 
The power of emancipation was narrowed or 
taken away. The slave might not be disquieted 
by education. There remained an unconfessed 
consciousness that the system of bondage was 
wrong, and a restless memory that it was at vari- 
ance with the true American tradition; its safety 
was therefore to be secured by political organiza- 
tion. The generation that made the Constitution 
took care for the predominance of freedom in Con- 
gress by the ordinance of Jefferson ; the new school 
aspired to secure for slavery an equality of votes 
in the Senate, and while it hinted at an organic 
act that should concede to the collective South a 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 243 

veto power on national legislation, it assumed that 
each State separately had the right to revise and 
nullify laws of the United States, according to the 
discretion of its judgment. 

The new theory hung as a bias on the foreign 
relations of the country ; there could be no recogni- 
tion of Hayti, nor even of the American colony of 
Liberia; and the world was given to understand 
that the establishment of free labor in Cuba would 
be a reason for wresting that island from Spain. 
Territories were annexed — Louisiana, Florida, 
Texas, half of Mexico ; slavery must have its share 
in them all, and it accepted for a time a dividing 
line between the unquestioned domain of free labor 
and that in which involuntary labor was to be 
tolerated. A few years passed away, and the new 
school, strong and arrogant, demanded and re- 
ceived an apology for applying the Jefferson pro- 
viso to Oregon. 

The application of that proviso was interrupted 
for three administrations, but justice moved steadily 
onward. In the news that the men of California 
had chosen freedom, Calhoun heard the knell of 
parting slavery, and on his deathbed he counseled 
secession. Washington, and Jefferson, and Madi- 
son had died despairing of the abolition of slavery ; 
Calhoun died in despair at the growth of freedom. 
His system rushed irresistibly to its natural de- 
velopment. The death-struggle for California was 
followed by a short truce; but the new school of 
politicians, who said that slavery was not evil, 
but good, soon sought to recover the ground they 



244 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

had lost, and, confident of securing Kansas, they 
demanded that the estabUshed Hne in the Terri- 
tories between freedom and slavery should be 
blotted out. The country, believing in the strength 
and enterprise and expansive energy of freedom, 
made answer, though reluctantly : " Be it so ; let 
there be no strife between brethren; let freedom 
and slavery compete for the Territories on equal 
terms, in a fair field, under an impartial adminis- 
tration " ; and on this theory, if on any, the con- 
test might have been left to the decision of time. 
The South started back in appallment from its 
victory, for it knew that a fair competition fore- 
boded its defeat. But where could it now find an 
ally to save it from its own mistake? What I 
have next to say is spoken with no emotion but 
regret. Our meeting to-day is, as it were, at the 
grave, in the presence of eternity, and the truth 
must be uttered in soberness and sincerity. In a 
great republic, as was observed more than two 
thousand years ago, any attempt to overturn the 
state owes its strength to aid from some branch of 
the government. The Chief Justice of the United 
States, without any necessity or occasion, volun- 
teered to come to the rescue of the theory of 
slavery ; and from his court there lay no appeal but 
to the bar of humanity and history. Against the 
Constitution, against the memory of the nation, 
against a previous decision, against a series of 
enactments, he decided that the slave is property; 
that slave property is entitled to no less protection 
than any other property; that the Constitution up- 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 245 

holds it in every Territory against any act of a 
local legislature, and even against Congress itself; 
or, as the President for that term tersely promul- 
gated the saying, " Kansas is as much a slave State 
as South Carolina or Georgia; slavery, by virtue 
of the Constitution, exists in every Territory." 
The municipal character of slavery being thus 
taken avi^ay, and slave property decreed to be 
" sacred," the authority of the courts was invoked 
to introduce it by the comity of law into States 
where slavery had been abolished, and in one of 
the courts of the United States a judge pro- 
nounced the African slave-trade legitimate, and 
numerous and powerful advocates demanded its 
restoration. 

Moreover, the Chief Justice, in his elaborate 
opinion, announced what had never been heard 
from any magistrate of Greece or Rome ; what was 
unknown to civil law, and canon law, and feudal 
law, and common law, and constitutional law; un- 
known to Jay, to Rutledge, Ellsworth and Mar- 
shall — that there are *' slave races." The spirit 
of evil is intensely logical. Having the authority 
of this decision, five States swiftly followed the 
earlier example of a sixth, and opened the way for 
reducing the free negro to bondage ; the migrating 
free negro became a slave if he but entered within 
the jurisdiction of a seventh; and an eighth, from 
its extent, and soil, and mineral resources, destined 
to incalculable greatness, closed its eyes on its com- 
ing prosperity, and enacted, as by Taney's dictum 
it had the right to do, that every free black man 



246 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

who would live within its limits must accept the 
condition of slavery for himself and his posterity. 

Only one step more remained to be taken. Jef- 
ferson and the leading statesmen of his day held 
fast to the idea that the enslavement of the African 
was socially, morally and politically wrong. The 
new school was founded exactly upon the opposite 
idea; and they resolved, first, to distract the demo- 
cratic party, for which the Supreme Court had 
now furnished the means, and then to estabUsh a 
new government, with negro slavery for its corner- 
stone, as socially, morally, and politically right. 

As the Presidential election drew on, one of the 
great traditional parties did not make its appear- 
ance; the other reeled as it sought to preserve its 
old position, and the candidate who most nearly 
represented its best opinion, driven by patriotic 
zeal, roamed the country from end to end to speak 
for union, eager, at least, to confront its enemies, 
yet not having hope that it would find its deliver- 
ance through him. The storm rose to a whirl- 
wind; who would allay its wrath? The most ex- 
perienced statesmen of the country had failed ; 
there was no hope from those who were great after 
the flesh : could relief come from one whose wis- 
dom was like the wisdom of little children? 

The choice of America fell on a man born west 
of the Alleghenies, in the cabin of poor people of 
Hardin county, Kentucky — ABRAHAM LIN- 
COLN. 

His mother could read, but not write; his father 
would do neither; but his parents sent him, with 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 247 

an old spelling-book, to school, and he learned in 
his childhood to do both. 

When eight years old he floated down the Ohio 
with his father on a raft, which bore the family 
and all their possessions to the shore of Indiana; 
and, child as he was, he gave help as they toiled 
through dense forests to the interior of Spencer 
County. There, in the land of free labor, he grew 
up in a log-cabin, with the solemn solitude for his 
teacher in his meditative hours. Of Asiatic litera- 
ture he knew only the Bible; of Greek, Latin, and 
mediaeval, no more than the translation of ^sop's 
Fables ; of English, John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Prog- 
ress. The traditions of George Fox and William 
Penn passed to him dimly along the lines of two 
centuries through his ancestors, who were Quakers. 

Otherwise his education was altogether Ameri- 
can. The Declaration of Independence was his 
compendium of political wisdom, the Life of Wash- 
ington his constant study, and something of Jeffer- 
son and Madison reached him through Henry Clay, 
whom he honored from boyhood. For the rest, 
from day to day, he lived the life of the American 
people, walked in its light, reasoned with its reason, 
thought with its power of thought, felt the beat- 
ings of its mighty heart, and so was in every way 
a child of nature, a child of the West, a child of 
America. 

At nineteen, feeling impulses of ambition to get 
on in the world, he engaged himself to go down 
the Mississippi in a flatboat, receiving ten dollars 
a month for his wages, and afterwards he made 



248 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

the trip once more. At twenty-one he drove his 
father's cattle as the family migrated to Illinois, 
and split rails to fence in the new homestead in the 
wild. At twenty-three he was a captain of volun- 
teers in the Black Hawk war. He kept a store. 
He learned something of surveying, but of English 
literature he added to Bunyan nothing but Shake- 
speare's plays. At twenty-five he was elected to 
the legislature of Illinois, where he served eight 
years. At twenty-seven he was admitted to the 
bar. In 1837 he chose his home in Springfield, the 
beautiful centre of the richest land in the State. 
In 1847 he was a member of the national Congress, 
where he voted about forty times in favor of the 
principle of the Jefferson proviso. In 1849 he 
sought, eagerly but unsuccessfully, the place of 
Commissioner of the Land Office, and he refused 
an appointment that would have transferred his 
residence to Oregon. In 1854 he gave his influ- 
ence to elect from Illinois, to the American Senate, 
a Democrat, who would certainly do justice to 
Kansas. In 1858, as the rival of Douglas, he went 
before the people of the mighty Prairie State, say- 
ing, " This Union cannot permanently endure half 
slave and half free ; the Union will not be dissolved, 
but the house will cease to be divided " ; and now, 
in 1 86 1, with no experience whatever as an exec- 
utive officer, while States were madly flying from 
their orbit, and wise men knew not where to find 
counsel, this descendant of Quakers, this pupil of 
Bunyan, this offspring of the great West, was 
elected President of America. 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 249 

He measured the difficulty of the duty that de- 
volved upon him, and was resolved to fulfil it. 
As on the eleventh of February, 1861, he left 
Springfield, which for a quarter of a century had 
been his happy home, to the crowd of his friends 
and neighbors, whom he was never more to meet, 
he spoke a solemn farewell : *' I know not how 
soon I shall see you again. A duty has devolved 
upon me, greater than that which has devolved 
upon any other man since Washington. He never 
would have succeeded, except for the aid of Di- 
vine Providence, upon which he at all times relied. 
On the same Almighty Being I place my reliance. 
Pray that I may receive that Divine assistance, 
without which I cannot succeed, but with which 
success is certain." To the men of Indiana he 
said : '' I am but an accidental, temporary instru- 
ment ; it is your business to rise up and preserve 
the Union and liberty." At the capital of Ohio he 
said : '* Without a name, without a reason why 
I should have a name, there has fallen upon me a 
task such as did not rest even upon the Father 
of his country." At various places in New York, 
especially at Albany, before the legislature, which 
tendered him the united support of the great Em- 
pire State, he said : " While I hold myself the 
humblest of all the individuals who have ever been 
elevated to the Presidency, I have a more difficult 
task to perform than any of them. I bring a true 
heart to the work. I must rely upon the people of 
the whole country for support, and with their sus- 
taining aid, even I, humble as I am, cannot fail to 



250 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

carry the ship of state safely through the storm." 
To the assembly of New Jersey, at Trenton, he ex- 
plained : " I shall take the ground I deem most 
just to the North, the East, the West, the South, 
and the whole country, in good temper, certainly 
with no malice to any section. I am devoted to 
peace, but it may be necessary to put the foot down 
firmly." In the old Independence Hall, of Phila- 
delphia, he said : " I have never had a feeling 
politically that did not spring from the sentiments 
embodied in the Declaration of Independence, 
which gave liberty, not alone to the people of this 
country, but to the world in all future time. If 
the country cannot be saved without giving up that 
principle, I would rather be assassinated on the 
spot than surrender it. I have said nothing but 
what I am willing to live and die by." 

Travelling, in the dead of night to escape 
assassination, LINCOLN arrived at Washington 
nine days before his inauguration. The outgoing 
President, at the opening of the session of Con- 
gress, had still kept as the majority of his advisors 
men engaged in treason; had declared that in case 
of even an " imaginary " apprehension of danger 
from notions of freedom among the slaves, " dis- 
union would become inevitable." LINCOLN and 
others had questioned the opinion of Taney; such 
impugning he ascribed to the *' factious temper of 
the times." The favorite doctrine of the majority 
of the Democratic party on the power of a terri- 
torial legislature over slavery he condemned as an 
attack on " the sacred rights of property." The 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 251 

State legislature, he insisted, must repeal what he 
called '' their unconstitutional and obnoxious en- 
actments," and which, if such, were '' null and 
void " or " it would be impossible for any human 
power to save the Union." Nay! if these unim- 
portant acts were not repealed, *' the injured States 
would be justified in revolutionary resistance to 
the government of the Union." He maintained 
that no State might secede at its sovereign will 
and pleasure; that the Union was meant for per- 
petuity, and that Congress might attempt to pre- 
serve it, but only by conciliation ; that " the sword 
was not placed in their hands to preserve it by 
force " ; that " the last desperate remedy of a de- 
spairing people " would be an explanatory amend- 
ment recognizing the decision of the Supreme 
Court of the United States." The American Union 
he called " a confederacy " of States, and he 
thought it a duty to make the appeal for the 
amendment " before any of these States should 
separate themselves from the Union." The views 
of the Lieutenant-General, containing some pa- 
triotic advice, " conceded the right of secession," 
pronounced a quadruple rupture of the Union " a 
smaller evil than the reuniting of the fragments by 
the sword," and " eschewed the idea of invading 
a seceded State." After changes in the Cabinet, 
the President informed Congress that "matters 
were still worse " ; that " the South suffered seri- 
ous grievances," which should be redressed " in 
peace." The day after this message the flag of the 
Union was fired upon from Fort Morris, and the 



252 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

insult was not revenged or noticed. Senators in 
Congress telegraphed to their constituents to seize 
the national forts, and they were not arrested. 
The finances of the country were grievously em- 
barrassed. Its little army was not within reach; 
the part of it in Texas, with all its stores, was 
made over by its commander to rebels. One 
State after another voted in convention to secede. 
A peace congress, so called, met at the request of 
Virginia, to concert the terms of a capitulation 
which should secure permission for the continu- 
ance of the Union. Congress, in both branches, 
sought to devise conciliatory expedients; the terri- 
tories of the country were organized in a manner 
not to conflict with any pretensions of the South, 
or any decision of the Supreme Court; and, never- 
theless, the representatives of the rebellion formed 
at Montgomery a provisional government, and 
pursued their relentless purpose with such success 
that the Lieutenant-General feared the city of 
Washington might find itself " included in a for- 
eign country," and proposed, among the options 
for the consideration of LINCOLN, to bid the 
wayward States " depart in peace." The great re- 
public appeared to have its emblem in the vast un- 
finished Capitol, at that moment surrounded by 
masses of stone and prostrate columns never yet 
lifted into their places, seemingly the moment of 
high but delusive aspirations, the confused wreck 
of inchoate magnificence, sadder than any ruin 
of Egyptain Thebes or Athens. 

The fourth of March came. With instinctive 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 253 

wisdom the new President, speaking to the people 
on taking the oath of office, put aside every ques- 
tion that divided the country, and gained a right to 
universal support by planting himself on the single 
idea of Union. The Union he declared to be un- 
broken and perpetual, and he announced his de- 
termination to fulfil " the simple duty of taking 
care that the laws be faithfully executed in all the 
States." Seven days later, the convention of Con- 
federate States unanimously adopted a constitu- 
tion of their own, and the new government was 
authoritatively announced to be founded on the 
idea that the negro race is a slave race ; that slavery 
is its natural and normal condition. The issue was 
made up, whether the great republic was to main- 
tain its providential place in the history of man- 
kind, or a rebellion founded on negro slavery gain 
a recognition of its principle throughout the civil- 
ized world. To the disaffected LINCOLN had 
said, " You can have no conflict without being 
yourselves the aggressors." To fire the passions 
of the southern portion of the people, the confed- 
erate government chose to become aggressors, and, 
on the morning of the twelfth of April, began the 
bombardment of Fort Sumter, and compelled its 
evacuation. 

It is the glory of the late President that he had 
perfect faith in the perpetuity of the Union. Sup- 
ported in advance by Douglas, who spoke as with 
the voice of a million, he instantly called a meeting 
of Congress, and summoned the people to come up 
and repossess the forts, places, and property which 



254 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

had been seized from the Union. The men of the 
North were trained in schools; industrious and 
frugal; many of them delicately bred, their minds 
teeming with ideas and fertile in plans of enter- 
prise ; given to the culture of the arts ; eager in the 
pursuit of wealth, yet employing wealth less for 
ostentation than for developing the resources of 
their country; seeking happiness in the calm of 
domestic life; and such lovers of peace, that for 
generations they had been reputed unwarlike. 
Now, at the cry of their country in its distress, 
they rose up with unappeasable patriotism ; not 
hirelings — the purest and the best blood in the 
land. Sons of a pious ancestry, with a clear 
perception of duty, unclouded faith and fixed re- 
solve to succeed, they thronged around the Presi- 
dent, to support the wronged, the beautiful flag of 
the nation. The halls of theological seminaries 
sent forth their young men, whose lips were 
touched with eloquence, whose hearts kindled with 
devotion, to serve in the ranks, and make their way 
to command only as they learned the art of war. 
Striplings in the colleges, as well the most gentle 
and the most studious, those of sweetest temper 
and loveliest character and brightest genuis, passed 
from their classes to the camp. The lumbermen 
from the forests, the mechanics from their benches, 
where they had been trained, by the exercise of 
political rights, to share the life and hope of the 
republic, to feel their responsibility to their fore- 
fathers, their posterity and mankind, went to the 
front, resolved that their dignity, as a constituent 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 255 

part of this republic, should not be impaired. 
Farmers and sons of farmers left the land but half 
ploughed, the grain but half planted, and, taking 
up the musket, learned to face without fear the 
presence of peril and the coming of death in the 
shocks of war, while their hearts were still at- 
tracted to their herds and fields, and all the tender 
affections of home. Whatever there was of truth 
and faith and public love in the common heart, 
broke out with one expression. The mighty winds 
blew from every quarter, to fan the flame of the 
sacred and unquenchable fire. 

For a time the war was thought to be confined 
to our own domestic affairs, but it was soon seen 
that it involved the destinies of mankind; its prin- 
ciples and causes shook the politics of Europe to 
the centre, and from Lisbon to Pekin divided the 
governments of the world. 

There was a kingdom whose people had in an 
eminent degree attained to freedom of industry 
and the security of person and property. Its mid- 
dle class rose to greatness. Out of that class 
sprung the noblest poets and philosophers, whose 
words built up the intellect of its people; skilful 
navigators, to find out for its merchants the many 
paths of the oceans ; discoverers in natural science, 
whose inventions guided its industry to wealth, 
till it equalled any nation of the world in letters, 
and excelled all in trade and commerce. But its 
government was become a government of land, and 
not of men ; every blade of grass was represented, 
but only a small minority of the people. In the 



256 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

transition from the feudal forms the heads of the 
social organization freed themselves from the mili- 
tary services v^hich were the conditions of their 
tenure, and, throwing the burden on the industrial 
classes, kept all the soil to themselves. Vast es- 
tates that had been managed by monasteries as 
endowments for religion and charity were im- 
propriated to swell the wealth of courtiers and fa- 
vorites ; and the commons, where the poor man 
once had his right of pasture, were taken away, 
and, under forms of law, enclosed distributively 
within the domains of the adjacent landholders. 
Although no law forbade any inhabitant from pur- 
chasing land, the costliness of the transfer con- 
stituted a prohibition ; so that it was the rule of the 
country that the plough should not be in the hands 
of its owner. The Church was rested on a con- 
tradiction; claiming to be an embodiment of ab- 
solute truth, it was a creature of the statute- 
book. 

The progress of time increased the terrible con- 
trast between wealth and poverty. In their years 
of strength the laboring people, cut off from all 
share in governing that state, derived a scant sup- 
port from the severest toil, and had no hope for 
old age but in public charity or death. A grasp- 
ing ambition had dotted the world with military 
posts, kept watch over our borders on the north- 
east, at the Bermudas, in the West Indies, appro- 
priated the gates of the Pacific, of the Southern 
and of the Indian ocean, hovered on our north- 
west at Vancouver, held the whole of the newest 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 257 

continent, and the entrances to the old Mediter- 
ranean and Red Sea, and garrisoned forts all the 
way from Madras to China. That aristocracy had 
gazed with terror on the growth of a common- 
wealth where freeholders existed by the million, 
and religion was not in bondage to the state, and 
now they could not repress their joy at its perils. 
They had not one word of sympathy for the kind- 
hearted poor man's son whom America had chosen 
for her chief; they jeered at his large hands, and 
long feet, and ungainly stature ; and the British 
secretary of state for foreign affairs made haste 
to send word through the places of Europe that 
the great republic was in its agony ; that the re- 
public was no more; that a headstone was all that 
remained due by the law of nations to " the late 
Union." But it is written, " Let the dead bury 
their dead " ; they may not bury the living. Let 
the dead bury their dead; let a bill of reform re- 
move the worn-out government of a class, and in- 
fuse new life into the British constitution by con- 
fiding rightful power to the people. 

But while the vitality of America is indestructi- 
ble, the British government hurried to do what 
never before had been done by Christian powers ; 
what was in direct conflict with its own exposition 
of public law in the time of our struggle for inde- 
pendence. Though the insurgent States had not 
a ship in an open harbor, it invested them with all 
the rights of a belligerent, even on the ocean ; and 
this, too, when the rebellion was not only directed 
against the gentlest and most beneficent govern- 



258 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

ment on earth, without a shadow of justifiable 
cause, but when the rebelHon was directed against 
human nature itself for the perpetual enslavement 
of a race. And the effect of this recognition was, 
that acts in themselves piratical found shelter in 
British courts of law. The resources of British 
capitalists, their workshops, their armories, their 
private arsenals, their shipyards, were in league 
with the insurgents, and every British harbor in 
the wide world became a safe port for British 
ships, manned by British sailors, and armed with 
British guns, to prey on our peaceful commerce ; 
even on our ships coming from British ports, 
freighted with British products, or that had carried 
gifts of grain to the English poor. The prime 
minister, in the House of Commons, sustained by 
cheers, scoffed at the thought that their laws could 
be amended at our request, so as to preserve real 
neutrality; and to remonstrances, now owned to 
have been just, their secretary of state answered 
that they could not change their laws ad infinitum. 
The people of America then wished, as they al- 
ways have wished, as they still wish, friendly re- 
lations with England, and no man in England or 
America can desire it more strongly than I. This 
country has always yearned for good relations with 
England. Thrice only in all its history has that 
yearning been fairly met : in the days of Hampden 
and Cromwell, again in the first ministry of the 
elder Pitt, and once again in the ministry of Shel- 
burne. Not that there have not at all times been 
just men among the peers of Britain — like Hali- 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 259 

fax in the days of James the Second, or a Gran- 
ville, an Argyll, or a Houghton in ours; and we 
cannot be indifferent to a country that produces 
statesmen like Cobden and Bright; but the best 
bower anchor of peace was the working class of 
England, who suffered most from our civil war, 
but who, while they broke their diminished bread 
in sorrow, always encouraged us to persevere. 

The act of recognizing the rebel belligerents was 
concerted with France — France, so beloved in 
America, on which she had conferred the greatest 
benefits that one people ever conferred on another ; 
France, which stands foremost on the continent of 
Europe for the solidity of her culture, as well as 
for the bravery and generous impulses of her sons ; 
France, which for centuries had been moving 
steadily in her own way towards intellectual and 
political freedom. The policy regarding further 
colonization of America by European powers, 
known commonly as the doctrine of Monroe, had 
its origin in France, and if it takes any man's 
name, should bear the name of Turgot. It was 
adopted by Louis the Sixteenth, in the cabinet of 
which Vergennes was the most important member. 
It is emphatically the poHcy of France, to which, 
with transient deviations, the Bourbons, the first 
Napoleon, the House of Orleans have adherred. 

The late President was perpetually harassed by 
rumors that the Emperor Napoleon the Third de- 
sired formally to recognize the States in rebellion 
as an independent power, and that England held 
him back by her reluctance, or France by her tra- 



26o LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

ditions of freedom, or he himself by his own better 
judgment and clear perception of events. But the 
republic of Mexico, on our borders, was, like our- 
selves, distracted by a rebellion, and from a similar 
cause. The monarchy of England had fastened 
upon us slavery which did not disappear with in- 
dependence ; in like manner, the ecclesiastical policy 
established by the Spanish council of the Indies, 
in the days of Charles the Fifth and Philip the 
Second, retained its vigor in the Mexican republic. 
The fifty years of civil war under which she 
had languished was due to the bigoted system 
which was the legacy of monarchy, just as here 
the inheritance of slavery kept alive political strife, 
and culminated in civil war. As with us there 
could be no quiet but through the end of slavery, 
so in Mexico there could be no prosperity until 
the crushing tyranny of intolerance should cease. 
The party of slavery in the United States sent 
their emissaries to Europe to solicit aid; and so 
did the party of the Church in Mexico, as organized 
by the old Spanish council of the Indies, but with 
a different result. Just as the Republican party 
had made an end of the rebellion, and was es- 
tablishing the best government ever known in that 
region, and giving promise to the nation of order, 
peace, and prosperity, word was brought us, in the i 
moment of our deepest affliction, that the French 
Emperor, moved by a desire to erect in North 
America a buttress for imperialism, would trans- 
form the republic of Mexico into a secundo-geni- 
ture for the House of Hapsburg. America might 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 261 

complain; she could not then interpose, and delay 
seemed justifiable. It was seen that Mexico could 
not, with all its wealth of land, compete in cereal 
products with our northwest, nor in tropical prod- 
ucts with Cuba, nor could it, under a disputed 
dynasty, attract capital, or create public works, or 
develop mines, or borrow money ; so that the im- 
perial system of Mexico, which was forced at once 
to recognize the wisdom of the policy of the re- 
public by adopting it, could prove only an unre- 
munerating drain on the French treasury for the 
support of an Austrian adventurer. 

Meantime a new series of momentous questions 
grows up, and forces itself on the consideration of 
the thoughtful. Republicanism has learned how 
to introduce into its constitution every element of 
order, as well as every element of freedom ; but 
thus far the continuity of its government has 
seemed to depend on the continuity of elections. It 
is now to be considered how perpetuity is to be se- 
cured against foreign occupation. The successor 
of Charles the First of England dated his reign 
from the death of his father; the Bourbons, com- 
ing back after a long series of revolutions, claimed 
that the Louis who became king was the eighteenth 
of that name. The present Emperor of the 
French, disdaining a title from election alone, calls 
himself Napoleon the Third. Shall a republic 
have less power of continuance when invading 
armies prevent a peaceful resort to the ballot-box? 
What force shall it attach to intervening legisla- 
tion? What validity to debts contracted for its 



262 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

overthrow? These momentous questions are, by 
the invasion of Mexico, thrown up for solution. 
A free State once truly constituted should be as 
undying as its people : the republic of Mexico must 
rise again. 

It was the condition of affairs in Mexico that in- 
volved the Pope of Rome in our difficulties so far 
that he alone among sovereigns recognized the 
chief of the Confederate States as a president, and 
his supporters as a people ; and in letters to two 
great prelates of the Catholic Church in the United 
States gave counsels for peace at a time when peace 
meant the victory of secession. Yet events move 
as they are ordered. The blessing of the Pope at 
Rome on the head of Duke Maximilian could not 
revive in the nineteenth century the ecclesiastical 
policy of the sixteenth, and the result is only a new 
proof that there can be no prosperity in the State 
without religious freedom. 

When it came home to the consciousness of the 
Americans that the war which they were waging 
was a war for the liberty of all the nations of the 
world, for freedom itself, they thanked God for 
giving them strength to endure the severity of the 
trial to which He put their sincerity, and nerved 
themselves for their duty with an inexorable will. 
The President was led along by the greatness of 
their self-sacrificing example, and as a child, in 
a dark night, on a rugged way, catches hold of the 
hand of its father for guidance and support, he 
clung fast to the hand of the people, and moved 
calmly through the gloom. While the statesman- 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 263 

ship of Europe was mocking at the liopeless vanity 
of their efforts, they put forth such miracles of 
energy as the history of the world had never 
known. The contributions to the popular loans 
amounted in four years to twenty-seven and a 
half hundred millions of dollars; the revenue of 
the country from taxation was increased seven- 
fold. The navy of the United States, drawin.i,^ into 
the public service the willing militia of the seas, 
doubled its tonnage in eight months, and estab- 
lished an actual blockade from Cape Hatteras to 
the Rio Grande; in the course of the war it was 
increased five-fold in men and in tonnage, while the 
inventive genius of the country devised more ef- 
fective kinds of ordnance, and new forms of naval 
architecture in wood and iron. There went into 
the field, for various terms of enlistment, about two 
million men, and in March last the men in the 
army exceeded a million : that is to say, nine of 
every twenty able-bodied men in the free Terri- 
tories and States took some part in the war; and 
at one time every fifth of their able-bodied men was 
in service. In one single month one hundred and 
sixty-five thousand men were recruited into serv- 
ice. Once, within four weeks, Ohio organized and 
placed in the field forty-two regiments of in- 
fantry — nearly thirty-six thousand men; and Oliio 
was like other States in the East and in the West. 
The well-mounted cavalry numbered eighty four 
thousand; of horses and mules there were bought, 
from first to last, two-thirds of a million. In the 
movements of troops science came in aid of pa- 



264 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

triotism, so that, to choose a single instance out of 
many, an army twenty-three thousand strong, with 
its artillery, trains, baggage, and animals, were 
moved by rail from the Potomac to the Tennessee, 
twelve hundred miles, in seven days. On the long 
marches, wonders of military construction bridged 
the rivers, and wherever an army halted, ample 
supplies awaited them at their ever-changing base. 
The vile thought that life is the greatest of bless- 
ings did not rise up. In six hundred and twenty- 
five battles and severe skirmishes blood flowed like 
water. It streamed over the grassy plains; it 
stained the rocks ; the undergrowth of the forests 
was red with it; and the armies marched on with 
majestic courage from one conflict to another, 
knowing that they were fighting for God and 
liberty. The organization of the medical depart- 
ment met its infinitely multiplied duties with ex- 
actness and despatch. At the news of a battle, the 
best surgeons of our cities hastened to the field, 
to offer the untiring aid of the greatest experience 
and skill. The gentlest and most refined of women 
left homes of luxury and ease to build hospital 
tents near the armies, and serve as nurses to the 
sick and dying. Beside the large supply of re- 
ligious teachers by the public, the congregations 
spared to their brothers in the field the ablest 
ministers. The Christian Commission, which ex- 
pended more than six and a quarter millions, sent 
nearly five thousand clergymen, chosen out of the 
best, to keep unsoiled the religious character of the 
men, and made gifts of clothes and food and medi- 




*• ' ''^!^_ *t:?C 



^' -^ 




l|fap| 



Al'.KAHAM LiNCOlN 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 265 

cine. The organization of private cliaiiiy assumed 
unheard-of dimensions. The Sanitary Commission, 
which had seven thousand societies, distributed, 
under the direction of an unpaid board, spon- 
taneous contributions to the amount of fifteen mil- 
lions in suppHes or money — a milHon and a half 
in money from Cahfornia alone — and dotted the 
scene of war, from Paducah to Port Royal, from 
Belle Plain, Virginia, to Brownsville, Texas, with 
homes and lodges. 

The country had for its allies the river Missis- 
sippi, which would not be divided, and the range 
of mountains which carried the stronghold of the 
free through Western Virginia and Kentucky and 
Tennessee to the highlands of Alabama. But it in- 
voked the still higher power of immortal justice. 
In ancient Greece, where servitude was the uni- 
versal custom, it was held that if a child were to 
strike its parent, the slave should defend the parent, 
and by that act recover his freedom. After vain 
resistance, LINCOLN, who had tried to solve the 
question by gradual emancipation, by colonization, 
and by compensation, at last saw that slavery must 
be aboHshed, or the republic must die; and on the 
first day of January, 1863, he wrote liberty en the 
banners of the armies. When this pr..clamai...n. 
which struck the fetters from three nnlhons «.t 
slaves, reached Europe, Lord Russell, a country- 
man of Milton and Wilberforce, eagerly i)ut hnn- 
self forward to speak of it in the name of man- 
kind, saying: "It is of a very strange nature •. 
"a measure of war of a very questionable kuid , 



266 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

an act " of vengeance on the slave owner," that 
does no more than *' profess to emancipate slaves 
where the United States authorities cannot make 
emancipation a reality." Now there was no part 
of the country embraced in the proclamation where 
the United States could not and did not make 
emancipation a reality. Those who saw LIN- 
COLN most frequently had never before heard 
him speak with bitterness of any human being, but 
he did not conceal how keenly he felt that he had 
been wronged by Lord Russell. And he wrote, in 
reply to other cavils : " The emancipation policy 
and the use of colored troops were the greatest 
blows yet dealt to the rebellion; the job was a great 
national one, and let none be slighted who bore 
an honorable part in it. I hope peace will come 
soon, and come to stay; then will there be some 
black men who can remember that they have helped 
mankind to this great consummation." 

The proclamation accomplished its end, for, dur- 
ing the war, our armies came into military posses- 
sion of every State in rebellion. Then, too, was 
called forth the new power that comes from the 
simultaneous diffusion of thought and feeling 
among the nations of mankind. The mysterious 
sympathy of the millions throughout the world was 
given spontaneously. The best writers of Europe 
waked the conscience of the thoughtful, till the in- 
telligent moral sentiment of the Old World was 
drawn to the side of the unlettered statesman of the 
West. Russia, whose emperor had just accom- 
plished one of the grandest acts in the course of 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 267 

time, by raising twenty millions of bondmen into 
freeholders, and thus assuring the growtli and 
culture of a Russian people, remained our unwaver- 
ing friend. From the oldest abode of civilization, 
which gave the first example of an imperial gov- 
ernment with equality among the people, Prince 
Kung, the secretary of state for foreign affairs, 
remembered the saying of Confucius, that we 
should not do to others what we would not that 
others should do to us, and, in the name of his 
emperor, read a lesson to European diplomatists 
by closing the ports of China against the warships 
and privateers of " the seditious." 

The war continued, with all the peoples of the 
world, for anxious spectators. Its cares weighed 
heavily on LINCOLN, and his face was ploughed 
with the furrows of thought and sadness. With 
malice towards none, free from the spirit of re- 
venge, victory made him importunate for peace, and 
his enemies never doubted his word, or despaired 
of his abounding clemency. He longed to utter 
pardon as the word for all, but not unless the free- 
dom of the negro should be assured. The grand 
battles of Fort Donelson, Chattanooga, Malvern 
Hill, Antietam, Gettysburg, the Wilderness of 
Virginia, Winchester, Nashville, the cai)ture of 
New Orleans, Vicksburg, Mobile, Fort I.^her. the 
march from Atlanta, and the capture of Savannah 
and Charleston, all foretold the issue. Stdl more, 
the self-regeneration of Missouri, the heart of the 
continent; of Maryland, whose sons never heard 
the midnight bells chime so sweetly as when they 



268 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

rang out to earth and heaven that, by the voice of 
her own people, she took her place among the 
free; of Tennessee, which passed through fire and 
blood, through sorrows and the shadow of death, 
to work out her own deliverance, and by the faith- 
fulness of her own sons to renew her youth like 
the eagle — proved that victory was deserved, and 
would be worth all that it cost. If words of mercy, 
uttered as they were by LINCOLN on the waters 
of Virginia, were defiantly repelled, the armies of 
the country, moving with one will, went as the ar- 
row to its mark, and, without a feeling of revenge, 
struck the death-blow at rebellion. 

Where, in the history of nations, had a Chief 
Magistrate possessed more sources of consolation 
and joy than LINCOLN? His countrymen had 
shown their love by choosing him to a second term 
of service. The raging war that had divided the 
country had lulled, and private grief was hushed 
by the grandeur of the result. The nation had its 
new birth of freedom, soon to be secured forever 
by an amendment of the Constitution. His persist- 
ent gentleness had conquered for him a kindlier 
feeling on the part of the South. His scoffers 
among the grandees of Europe began to do him 
honor. The laboring classes everywhere saw in 
his advancement their own. All peoples sent him 
their benedictions. And at this moment of the 
height of his fame, to which his humility and mod- 
esty added charms, he fell by the hand of the assas- 
sin, and the only triumph awarded him was the 
march to the grave. 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 2G^ 

This is no time to say that human glory is but 
dust and ashes; that we mortals are no more than 
shadows in pursuit of shadows. How mean a 
thing were man if there were not that within him 
which is higher than himself ; if he could not master 
the illusions of sense, and discern the connexions 
of events by a superior light which comes from 
God ! He so shares the divine impulses that he has 
power to subject ambition to the ennoblement of his 
kind. Not in vain has LINCOLN lived, for he has 
helped to make this republic an example of justice, 
with no caste but the caste of humanity. The he- 
roes who led our armies and ships into battle and fell 
in the service — Lyon, McPherson, Reynolds, Sedg- 
wick, Wadsworth, Foote, Ward, with their com- 
peers — did not die in vain ; they and the myriads 
of nameless martyrs, and he, the chief martyr, gave 
up their lives willingly '' that government of the 
people, by the people, and for the people, shall not 
perish from the earth." 

The assassination of LINCOLN, who was so 
free from malice, has, by some mysterious inthi- 
ence, struck the country with solemn awe. aii.l 
hushed, instead of exciting, the passion for re- 
venge. It seems as if the just had died for the un- 
just. When I think of the friends I have lost in 
this war — and every one who hears me has. like 
myself, lost some of those whom he most loved - 
there is no consolation to be derived fn,ni y.ctmis 
on the scaffold, or from anythuig but the olahhshed 
union of the regenerated nation. 

In his character LINCOLN was through and 



270 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

through an American. He is the first native of 
the region west of the Alleghenies to attain to the 
highest station ; and how happy it is that the man 
who was brought forward as the natural outgrowth 
and first fruits of that region should have been 
of unblemished purity in private life, a good son, 
a kind husband, a most affectionate father, and, as 
a man, so gentle to all. As to integrity, Douglas, 
his rival, said of him : " Lincoln is the honestest 
man I ever knew." 

The habits of his mind were those of meditation 
and inward thought, rather than of action. He 
delighted to express his opinions by an apothegm, 
illustrate them by a parable, or drive them home 
by a story. He was skilful in analysis, discerned 
with precision the central idea on which a ques- 
tion turned, and knew how to disengage it and 
present it by itself in a few homely, strong old 
English words that would be intelligible to all. He 
excelled in logical statements more than in executive 
ability. He reasoned clearly, his reflective judg- 
ment was good, and his purposes were fixed ; but, 
like the Hamlet of his only poet, his will was tardy 
in action, and, for this reason, and not from 
humility or tenderness of feeling, he sometimes de- 
plored that the duty which devolved on him had 
not fallen to the lot of another. 

LINCOLN gained a name by discussing ques- 
tions which, of all others, most easily lead to 
fanaticism; but he was never carried away by en- 
thusiastic zeal, never indulged in extravagant lan- 
guage, never hurried to support extreme measures, 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 271 

never allowed himself to be controlled In- sudden 
impulses. During the progress of the election at 
which he was chosen President he expressed no 
opinion that went beyond the Jefferson proviso of 
1784. Like Jefferson and Lafayette, he had faith 
in the intuitions of the people, and read tlmsc in- 
tuitions with rare sagacity. He knew how t(j hide 
time, and was less apt to run ahead of pnljhc 
thought than to lag behind. He never sought to 
electrify the community by taking an advanced 
position with a banner of opinion, but rather stud- 
ied to move forward compactly, exposing no de- 
tachment in front or rear; so that the course of his 
administration might have been explained as the 
calculating policy of a shrewd and watchful pohii- 
cian, had there not been seen behind it a fixedness 
of principle which from the first determined his 
purpose, and grew more intense with every year, 
consuming his Hfe by its energy. Yet his sensibili- 
ties were not acute ; he had no vividness of imagin- 
ation to picture to his mind the horrors of tlie battle- 
field or the sufferings in hospitals ; his conscience 
was more tender than his feelings. 

LINCOLN was one of the most unassuming of 
men. In time of success, he gave credit for it to 
those whom he employed, to the people, and to the 
Providence of God. He did not know what osten- 
tation is; when he became President he was rather 
saddened than elated, and conduct and manners 
showed more than ever his belief that all men are 
born equal. He was no respecter of persons, and 
neither rank, nor reputation, nor services overawed 



272 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

him. In judging of character he failed in discrim- 
ination, and his appointments were sometimes bad; 
but he readily deferred to public opinion, and in 
appointing the head of the armies he followed the 
manifest preference of Congress. 

A good President will secure unity to his admin- 
istration by his own supervision of the various de- 
partments. LINCOLN, who accepted advice read- 
ily, was never governed by any member of his cabi- 
net, and could not be moved from a purpose deliber- 
ately formed; but his supervision of affairs was 
unsteady and incomplete, and sometimes, by a sud- 
den interference transcending the usual forms, he 
rather confused than advanced the public business. 
If he ever failed in the scrupulous regard due to 
the relative rights of Congress, it was so evidently 
without design that no conflict could ensue, or evil 
precedent be established. Truth he would receive 
from any one, but when impressed by others, he 
did not use their opinions till, by reflection, he had 
made them thoroughly his own. 

It was the nature of LINCOLN to forgive. 
When hostilities ceased, he, who had always sent 
forth the flag with every one of its stars in the 
field, was eager to receive back his returning coun- 
trymen, and meditated " some new announcement 
to the South." The amendment of the Constitu- 
tion abolishing slavery had his most earnest and 
unwearied support. During the rage of war we 
get a glimpse into his soul from his privately sug- 
gesting to Louisiana, that " in defining the fran- 
chise some of the colored people might be let in." 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 273 

saying: "They would probably help, in some 
trying time to come, to keep the jewel of liberty in 
the family of freedom." In 1857 he avowed him- 
self '' not in favor of " what he improperly called 
''negro citizenship," for the Constitution discrim- 
inates between citizens and electors. Three days 
before his death he declared his preference that 
" the elective franchise were now conferred on 
the very intelligent of the colored men, and on 
those of them who served our cause as soldiers " ; 
but he wished it done by the States themselves, and 
he never harbored the thought of exacting it from 
a new government, as a condition of its recognition. 

The last day of his life beamed with sunshine, 
as he sent, by the Speaker of this House, his 
friendly greetings to the men of the Rocky moun- 
tains and the Pacific slope; as he contemplated the 
return of hundreds of thousands of soldiers to 
fruitful industry; as he welcomed in advance hun- 
dreds of thousands of emigrants from Europe: as 
his eye kindled with enthusiasm at the coming 
wealth of the nation. And so, with tlicse thoughts 
for his country, he was removed from the toil> 
and temptations of this life, and was at peace. 

Hardly had the late President been consigned to 
the grave when the prime minister of England 
died, full of years and honors. Palmcrston traced 
his lineage to the time of the conqueror; LIN- 
COLN went back only to his grandfather. Pal- 
mcrston received his education from the best sch..l- 
ars of Harrow, Edinburg, and Cambridge: LIN- 
COLN'S early teachers were the silent forest s. the 



274 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

prairie, the river, and the stars. Palmerston was 
in pubHc Hfe for sixty years; LINCOLN for but 
a tenth of that time. Palmerston was a skilful 
guide of an established aristocracy; LINCOLN a 
leader, or rather a companion, of the people. 
Palmerston was exclusively an Englishman, and 
made his boast in the House of Commons that the 
interest of England was his Shibboleth; LINCOLN 
thought always of mankind, as well as his own 
country, and served human nature itself. Pal- 
merston, from his narrowness as an Englishman, 
did not endear his country to any one court or to 
any one nation, but rather caused general uneasi- 
ness and dislike; LINCOLN left America more 
beloved than ever by all the peoples of Europe. 
Palmerston was self-possessed and adroit in re- 
conciling the conflicting factions of the aristocracy ; 
LINCOLN, frank and ingenuous, knew how to 
poise himself on the ever-moving opinions of the 
masses. Palmerston was capable of insolence to- 
wards the weak, quick to the sense of honor, not 
heedful of right; LINCOLN rejected counsel given 
only as a matter of policy, and was not capable 
of being wilfully unjust. Palmerston, essentially 
superficial, delighted in banter, and knew how to 
divert grave opposition by playful levity; LIN- 
COLN was a man of infinite jest on his lips with 
saddest earnestness at his heart. Palmerston was 
a fair representative of the aristocratic liberality 
of the day, choosing for his tribunal, not the con- 
science of humanity, but the House of Commons; 
LINCOLN took to heart the eternal truths of 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 275 

liberty, obeyed them as the commands of Provi- 
dence, and accepted the human race as the judL^c- 
of his fideHty. Pahiierston did nothin": that will 
endure; LINCOLN finished a work which all lime 
cannot overthrow. Palmerston is a shining ex- 
ample of the ablest of a cultivated aristocracy; 
LINCOLN is the genuine fruit of institutions 
where the laboring man shares and assists to form 
the great ideas and designs of his country. 
Palmerston was buried in Westminster Abbey by 
the order of his Queen, and was attended by the 
British aristocracy to his grave, which, after a 
few years, will hardly be noticed by the side of the 
graves of Fox and Chatham ; LINCOLN was fol- 
lowed by the sorrow of his country across the con- 
tinent to his resting-place in the heart of the Mis- 
sissippi valley, to be remembered through all time 
by his countrymen, and by all the peoples of the 
world. 

As the sum of all, the hand of LINCOLN raised 
the flag; the American people was the hero of the 
war; and, therefore, the result is a new era of 
republicanism. The disturbances in the country 
o-rew not out of anything republican, but out of 
slavery, which is a part of the system of hereditary 
wrong;' and the expulsion of this domestic anomaly 
opens to the renovated nation a career of un- 
thought of dignitv and glory. Henceforth our 
country has a moral unity as the land of free lal)or. 
The party for slavery and the party against slavery 
are nc more, and are merged in the party of I n.on 
and freedom. The States which would have left 



2^76 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

us are not brought back as subjugated States, for 
then we should hold them only so long as that con- 
quest could be maintained ; they come to their right- 
ful place under the constitution as original, neces- 
rsary, and inseparable members of the Union. 

We build monuments to the dead, but no monu- 
ments of victory. We respect the example of the 
Romans, who never, even in conquered lands, 
raised emblems of triumph. And our generals are 
not to be classed in the herd of vulgar warriors, 
but are of the school of Timoleon, and William of 
Nassau, and Washington. They have used the 
sword only to give peace to their country and re- 
store her to her place in the great assembly of the 
nations. 

SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES of 
America : as I bid you farewell, my last words shall 
be words of hope and confidence ; for now slavery 
is no more, the Union is restored, a people begins 
to live according to the laws of reason, and re- 
publicanism is intrenched in a continent. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

BY GOLD WIN SMITH 

Abraham Lincoln is assuredly one of the mar- 
vels of history. No land but America has pro- 
duced his like. This destined chief of a nation 
in its most perilous hour was the son of a thrift- 
less and wandering settler. He had a strong and 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 277 

eminently fair understanding, with great powers 
of patient thought, which he cuhivalcd by ilic 
study of Euchd. In all his views there was the 
simplicity of his character. Both as an advocate 
and as a politician he was " Honest Abe." As an 
advocate he would throw up his brief when he 
knew that his case was bad. He said himself that 
he had not controlled events, but had been -uided 
by them. To know how to be guided by events, 
however, if it is not imperial genius, is practical 
wisdom. Lincoln's goodness of heart, his sense of 
duty, his unselfishness, his freedom from vanity, 
his long suffering, his simplicity, were never dis- 
turbed either by power or by opposition. To tlie 
charge of levity no man could be less ojien. 
Though he trusted in Providence, care for the 
public and sorrow for the public calamities filled 
his heart and sat visibly upon his brow. His State 
papers are excellent, not only as puljlic documents, 
but as compositions, and are distinguished by 
their depth of human feeling and tenderness, 
from those of other statesmen. He spoke always 
from his own heart to the heart of the people. 
His brief funeral oration over the graves of those 
who had fallen in the war is one of the gems of 
the language. 



27% LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

GREATNESS OF HIS SIMPLICITY 

BY H. A. DELANO 

He was uneducated, as that term goes to-day, 
and yet he gave statesmen and educators things 
to think about for a hundred years to come. Be- 
neath the awkward, angular and diffident frame 
beat one of the noblest, largest, tenderest hearts 
that ever swelled in aspiration for truth, or longed 
to accomplish a freeman's duty. He might have 
lacked in that acute analysis which knows the 
" properties of matter," but he knew the passions, 
emotions, and weaknesses of men ; he knew their 
motives. He had the genius to mine men and 
strike easily the rich ore of human nature. He 
was poor in this world's goods, and I prize grate- 
fully a fac-simile letter lying among the treasures 
of my study written by Mr. Lincoln to an old 
friend, requesting the favor of a small loan, as 
he had entered upon that campaign of his that was 
not done until death released the most steadfast 
hero of that cruel war. Alen speculate as to his 
religion. It was the religion of the seer, the hero, 
the patriot, and the lover of his race and time. 
Amid the political idiocy of the times, the corrup- 
tion in high places, the dilettante culture, the vapor- 
ings of wild and helpless theorists, in this swamp 
of political quagmire, O Lincoln, it is refreshing 
to think of thee! 



GREELEY'S ESTIMATE 279 



HORACE GREELEY'S ESTDTATE OF 
LL\COLN 

From " Greeley on Lincoln " 

When I last saw him, some five or six weeks 
before his death, his face was haj^^^ard with care, 
and seamed with thought and trouble. It looked 
care-ploughed, tempest-tossed, weather-beaten, as 
if he were some tough old mariner, who had for 
years been beating up against the wind and tide, 
unable to make his port or find safe anchorage. 
Judging from that scathed, rugged countenance, I 
do not believe he could have lived out his second 
term had no felon hand been lifted against his 
priceless life. 

The chief moral I deduce from his eventful 
career asserts 

The might that slumbers in a peasant's arm! 
the majestic heritage, the measureless (.})i).)rtunity. 
of the humblest American youth. Here w;i> an 
heir of poverty and insignificance, obscure, un- 
taught, buried throughout his childbood in tlic fron- 
tier forests, with no transcendent, dazzling abilities, 
such as make their way in any country, under any 
institutions, but emphatically in intellect, as in sta- 
tion, one of the millions of strivers for a rude 
livelihood, who, though attaching hunsclf stub- 
bornly to the less popular party, and especially so 
in the State which he has chosen as h.s hnnic. 
did nevertheless become a central figure of the 



28o LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

Western Hemisphere, and an object of honor, love, 
and reverence throughout the civiUzed world. Had 
he been a genius, an intellectual prodigy, like Julius 
Ceasar, or Shakespeare, or Mirabeau, or Webster, 
we might say : " This lesson is not for us — 
with such faculties any one could achieve and suc- 
ceed " ; but he was not a born king of men, ruling 
by the resistless might of his natural superiority, 
but a child of the people, who made himself a 
great persuader, therefore a leader by dint of firm 
resolve, and patient effort, and dogged persever- 
ance. He slowly won his way to eminence and 
renown by ever doing the work that lay next to 
him — doing it with all his growing might — doing 
it as well as he could, and learning by his failure, 
when failure was encountered, how to do it bet- 
ter. Wendell Phillips once coarsely said, '' He 
grew because we watered him " ; which was only 
true in so far as this — he was open to all im- 
pressions and influences, and gladly profited by all 
the teachings of events and circumstances, no mat- 
ter how adverse or unwelcome. There was prob- 
ably no year of his life in which he was not a 
wiser, larger, better man than he had been the 
year preceding. It was of such a nature — patient, 
plodding, sometimes groping, but ever towards the 
light — that Tennyson sings: 

Perplext in faith, but pure in deeds, 

At last he beat his music out. 

There lives more faith in honest doubt, 
Believe me, than in half the creeds. 



GREELEY'S ESTIMATE 281 

There are those who profess to have been always 
satisfied with his conduct of the war, dccniiii«; it 
prompt, energetic, vigorous, masterly. 1 did not. 
and could not, so regard it. 1 believed iIku — 
I believe this hour, — that a Napoleon 1., a Jack- 
son, would have crushed secession out in a single 
short campaign — almost in a single victory. I 
believed that an advance to Richmond 100,000 
strong might have been made by the end of June, 
1 861 ; that would have insured a counter-revolutiun 
throughout the South, and a voluntary return of 
every State, through a dispersion and disavowal 
of its rebel chiefs, to the councils and the flag of the 
Union, But such a return would have not merely 
left slavery intact — it would have established it 
on firmer foundations than ever before. The mo- 
mentarily alienated North and South would have 
fallen on each other's necks, and, amid tears and 
kisses, have sealed their reunion by ignominiously 
making the Black the scapegoat of their bygone 
quarrel, and wreaking on him the spite which they 
had purposed to expend on each other. But God 
had higher ends, to which a Bull Run, a Ball's 
Bluff, a Gaines's Mill, a Groveton, were indispens- 
able : and so they came to pass, and were endured 
and profited by. The Republic needed to be passed 
through chastening, purifying fires of adversity 
and suffering: so these came and did their work 
and the verdure of a new national lite springs 
greenly, luxuriantly, from their ashes. Other men 
were helpful to the great renovation, and nubly 
did their part in it; yet, looking back through the 



282 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

lifting mists of seven eventful, tragic, trying, 
glorious years, I clearly discern that the one provi- 
dential leader, the indispensable hero of the great 
drama — faithfully reflecting even in his hesitations 
and seeming vacillations the sentiment of the 
masses — fitted by his very defects and shortcom- 
ings for the burden laid upon him, the good to be 
wrought out through him, was Abraham Lincoln. 



LINCOLN 

BY J. T. TROWBRIDGE 

Heroic soul, in homely garb half hid. 
Sincere, sagacious, melancholy, quaint; 

What he endured, no less than what he did, 
Has reared his monument, and crowned him 
saint. 



THE RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN ^ 

BY B. B. TYLER 

In 1865, the bullet of an assassin suddenly 
terminated the life among men of one who was an 
honor to his race. He was great and good. He 
was great because he was good. Lincoln's re- 

1 From ' The Homiletic Review' Funk & W agnails, 
Publishers. 



RELIGIOUS CHARACTER jR^ 

ligious character was the one thing which, alx)vc 
all other features of his unique mental and moral 
as well as physical personality, lifted hfm ahovc his 
fellow men. 

Because an effort has been made to parade Abra- 
ham Lincoln as an unbeliever, I have been led to 
search carefully for the facts in his life bearing 
on this point. The testimony seems to be almost 
entirely, if not altoi^ether, on one side. I cannot 
account for the statement which William H. Ilcrn- 
don makes in his life of the martyred President, 
that, " Mr. Lincoln had no faith." For twenty- 
five years Mr. Herndon was Abraham Lincoln's 
law partner in Springfield, 111. He had the best 
opportunities to know Abraham Lincoln. When, 
however, he affirms that " Mr. Lincoln had no 
faith," he speaks without warrant. It is simply 
certain that he uses words in their usually ac- 
cepted signification, although his statcmoiU con- 
cerning Lincoln is not true. 

Abraham Lincoln was a man of i)rofonnd faith. 
He believed m God. He believed in Christ. He 
believed in the Bible. He believed in men. His 
faith made him great. His life is a beautiful com- 
mentary on the words, "This is the victory that 
overcometh the world, even our faith." 1 lu-rc 
was a time in Lincoln's experience wlun h.^ taiih 
faltered, as there was a time when his reason tot- 
tered but these sad experiences were tcmiK.rary. 
and Abraham Lincoln was neither an uihdcl nor 
a lunatic. It Is ea.sy to trace in the hie ot t h.s 
colossal character, a steady growth ot ..nth. 1 h.s 



284 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

grace in him increased steadily in breadth and in 
strength with the passing years, until it came to 
pass that his last public utterances show forth the 
confidence and the fire of an ancient Hebrew 
prophet. 

It is true that Lincoln never united with the 
Church, although a lifelong and regular attendant 
on its services. He had a reason for occupying 
a position outside the fellowship of the Church of 
Christ as it existed in his day and in his part of 
the world. This reason Lincoln did not hesitate 
to declare. He explained on one occasion that he 
had never become a church member because he did 
not like and could not in conscience subscribe to 
the long and frequently complicated statements of 
Christian doctrines which characterized the con- 
fessions of the Churches. He said : " When any 
Church will inscribe over its altar as its sole quali- 
fication for membership the Savior's condensed 
statement of the substance of both law and gospel, 
* Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, 
and thy neighbor as thyself,' that Church will I 
join with all my heart and soul." 

Abraham Lincoln in these words recognizes the 
central figure of the Bible, Jesus of Nazareth, as 
'' the Saviour." He recognizes God as the supreme 
Lawgiver, and expresses readiness, while eschewing 
theological subtleties, to submit heart and soul to 
the supreme Lawgiver of the universe. His faith, 
according to this language, goes out manward as 



RELIGIOUS CHARACTER 28 



well as Godward. He believed not only in God. 
but he believed in man as well, and this Christianity, 
according to Christ, requires of all disciples of the 
great Teacher. 

About a year before his assassination Lincohi, 
in a letter to Joshua Speed, said: ''I am profit- 
ably engaged in reading the Bible. Take all of this 
book upon reason that you can and the balance on 
faith, and you will live and die a better man." lie 
saw and declared that the teaching of the liiblc 
had a tendency to improve character. He had a 
right view of this sacred literature. Its purpose is 
character building. 

Leonard Swett, who knew Abraham Lincoln 
well, said at the unveiling of the Chicago monu- 
ment that Lincoln " believed in God as the supreme 
ruler of the universe, the guide of men, and the 
controller of the great events and destinies of man- 
kind. He believed himself to be an instrument and 
leader in this country of the force of freedom." 

From this it appears that his belief was not 
merely theoretical, but that it was practical. He 
regarded himself as an instrument, as Mu>es was 
an instrument in the hands of Almighty God, to lead 
m,en into freedom. 

It was after his election, in the autumn of i8C)0, 
and but a short time before his inauguration as 
President of the United States, that in a letter to 
Judge Joseph Gillespie, he said: M have read 
on my knees the story of Gethsemano, wlu-ro the 
Son of God prayed in vain that the cup oi b.tter- 



286 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

ness might pass from Him. I am in the garden 
of Gethsemane now, and my cup of bitterness is 
full and overflowing." 

From this it is clear that he believed the Jesus 
of the Gospels to be " the Son of God." And 
what a sense of responsibility he must at the time 
of writing this letter have experienced to cause 
him to declare, " I am in the garden of Gethsemane 
now, and my cup of bitterness is full and over- 
flowing ! " Only a superlatively good man, only 
a man of genuine piety, could use honestly such 
language as this. These words do not indicate 
unbelief or agnosticism. If ever a man in public 
life in these United States was removed the dis- 
tance of the antipodes from the coldness and bleak- 
ness of agnosticism, that man was Abraham Lin- 
coln. This confession of faith, incidentally made 
in a brief letter to a dear friend, is not only 
orthodox according to the accepted standards of 
orthodoxy, but, better, it is evangelical. To him 
the hero of the Gospel histories was none other 
than " the Son of God." By the use of these words 
did Lincoln characterize Jesus of Nazareth. 

Herndon has said in his life of Abraham Lin- 
coln that he never read the Bible, but Alexander 
Williamson, who was employed as a tutor in Presi- 
dent Lincoln's family in Washington, said that 
*' Mr. Lincoln very frequently studied the Bible, 
with the aid of Cruden's Concordance, which lay 
on his table." If Lincoln was not a reader and 
student of the inspired literature which we call 
the Bible, what explanation can be made of his 



RELIGIOUS CHARACTER jS 



-'■/ 



language just quoted, addressed to Jud^a- (iillcs- 
pie, " I have read on my knees the story of ( k-ih- 
semane, where the Son of God prayed in vain thai 
the cup of bitterness might pass from Ilim "'i 

I have admitted that in Lincohi's experience 
there was a time when his faith fahercd. Ii is 
interesting to know in what manner he came tu 
have the faith which in the maturity of his royal 
manhood and in the zenith of his intellectual 
powers he expressed. One of his pastors — fur he 
sat under the ministry of James Smith, has told 
in what way Lincoln came to be an intelligent l)e- 
Hever in the Bible, in Jesus as the Son of God, 
and in Christianity as Divine in its origin, and a 
mighty moral and spiritual power for the regenera- 
tion of men and of the race. Mr. Smith placed 
before him, he says, the arguments for and again>t 
the Divine authority and inspiration of the Scrip- 
tures. To the arguments on both sides Lincoln 
gave a patient, impartial, and searching investiga- 
tion. He himself said that he examined the argu- 
ments as a lawyer investigates testimony in a case 
in which he is deeply interested. At the con- 
clusion of the investigation he declared that the 
arguments in favor of the Divine auth<.nty and ni- 
spiration of the Bible is unanswerable. ^ 

So far did Lincoln go in his open sympathy uu.i 
the teachings of the Bible that on one occasion m 
the presence of a large assembly, he ddivercd the 
address at an annual meeting of the Sprm.ficl. . 
Illinois, Bible Society. lu the ^^^^^ ,"^ ;'; ;;;. 
dress he drew a contrast between the decalog and 



288 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

the most eminent lawgiver of antiquity, in which 
he said : '' It seems to me that nothing short of 
infinite wisdom could by any possibility have de- 
vised and given to man this excellent and perfect 
moral code. It is suited to men in all the condi- 
tions of life, and inculcates all the duties they owe 
to their Creator, to themselves, and their fellow 
men." 

Lincoln prepared an address, in which he de- 
clared that this country cannot exist half slave and 
half-free. He affirmed the saying of Jesus, *' A 
house divided against itself cannot stand." Hav- 
ing read this address to some friends, they urged 
him to strike out that portion of it. If he would 
do so, he could probably be elected to the United 
States Senate; but if he delivered the address as 
written, the ground taken was so high, the position 
was so advanced, his sentiments were so radical, 
he would probably fail of gaining a seat in the 
supreme legislative body of the greatest republic 
on earth. 

Lincoln, under those circumstances, said : '' I 
know there is a God, and that He hates the in- 
justice of slavery. I see the storm coming, and 
I know that His hand is in it. If He has a place 
and a work for me, and I think he has, I believe I 
am ready. I am nothing but truth is everything. 
I know I am right, because I know that lib- 
erty is right, for Christ teaches it, and Christ is 
God." 

And yet we are asked to believe that a man 
who could express himself in this way and show 



RELIGIOUS CHARACTER 289 

this courage was a doubter, a skejilic, an unl)c- 
liever, an agnostic, an infidel. "Christ is Cod." 
This was Lincohi's faith in i860, found in a let- 
ter addressed to the Hon. Newton Baleman. 

Lincoln's father was a Christian. Old L'nclc 
Tommy Lincoln, as his friends familiarly called 
him, was a good man. He was what iiii,L;ht he 
called a ne'er-do-well. As the world counts suc- 
cess, Thomas Lincoln, the father of Abraham Lin- 
coln, was not successful, but he was an honest man. 
He was a truthful man. He was a man of faith. 
He worshipped God. He belonged to the church. 
He was a member of a congregation in Charleston, 
111., which I had the honor to serve in the be,c:innini: 
of my ministry, known as the Christian Church. 
He died not far from Charleston, and is buried a 
few miles distant from the beautiful little town, 
the county seat of Coles County, 111. 

During the last illness of his father, Lino.in 
wrote a letter to his step-brother, John Johnston, 
which closes with the following sentcnce> : *' I 
sincerely hope that father may recover his health, 
but at all events tell him to remember to call upon 
and confide in our great, and good, and merciful 
Maker, who will not turn away fn^m Inm in any 
extremity. He notes the fall of the sj^arrow. and 
numbers the hairs of our heads, and He wdl not 
forget the dying man who puts his tm>t in li.m. 
Say to him that if we could meet now it is doubt- 
ful whether it would not be more pamful than 
pleasant, but that if it be his lot to go now lie wdl 
soon have a joyful meeting with loved one. gone 



2go LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

before, and where the rest of us, through the mercy 
of God, hope ere long to join them." 

From this it appears that Lincoln cherished a 
hope of life everlasting through the mercy of God. 
This sounds very much like the talk of a Christian. 

Although Lincoln was not a church member, he 
was a man of prayer. He believed that God can 
hear, does hear, and answer prayer. Lincoln said 
in conversation with General Sickles concerning 
the battle of Gettysburg, that he had no anxiety as 
to the result. At this General Sickles expressed 
surprise, and inquired into the reason for this un- 
usual state of mind at that period in the history of 
the war. Lincoln hesitated to accede to the re- 
quest of General Sickles, but was finally prevailed 
upon to do so, and this is what he said : 

" Well, I will tell you how it was. In the pinch 
of your campaign up there, when everybody seemed 
panic stricken, and nobody could tell what was 
going to happen, oppressed by the gravity of our 
affairs, I went into my room one day and locked 
the door, and got down on my knees before Al- 
mighty God, and prayed to Him mightily for vic- 
tory at Gettysburg. I told Him this was His war, 
and our cause His cause, but that we could not 
stand another Fredericksburg or Chancellorsville. 
And I then and there made a solemn vow to Al- 
mighty God that if He would stand by our boys 
at Gettysburg I would stand by Him. And He did 
and I will. And after that (I don't know how it 
was, and I can't explain it) but soon a sweet com- 
fort crept into my soul that things would go all 



RELIGIOUS CHARACTER 291 

right at Gettysburg, and that is why I had no fears 
about you." 

Such faith as this will put to the biii>h many 
who are members of the church. 

It was afterward that General Sickles asked him 
what news he had from Vicksburg, He answered 
that he had no news worth mentioning, but that 
Grant was still " pegging away " down there, and 
he thought a good deal of him as a general, and 
had no thought of removing him notwithstanding 
that he was urged to do so ; and, *' besides," he 
added, '' I have been praying over Vicksburg also, 
and believe our Heavenly Father is going to give 
us victory there too, because we need it, in order 
to bisect the Confederacy and have the Mississippi 
flow unvexed to the sea." 

When he entered upon the task to which the 
people of the United States had called him, at the 
railway station in Springfield on the eve of his 
departure to Washington to take the oath oi of- 
fice, he delivered an address. It is a model. 1 
quote it entire. It is as follows: 

"My friends, no one not in my i^osition can 
realize the sadness I feel at this parting. To this 
people I owe all that I am. Here 1 have hyed 
more than a quarter of a century. Here my chd- 
dren were born, and here one of them lies bumMl. 
I know not how soon I shall see you agam. I go 
to assume a task more than that winch has de- 
volved upon any other man since the days of W ash- 
ington. He never would have ^^^-'-•'^^•\;-.;' \ ' 
for the aid of Divine Providence, upnn winch he 



2^2 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

at all times relied. I feel that I cannot succeed 
without the same Divine blessing which sustained 
him, and on the same almighty Being I place my 
reliance for support. And I hope you, my friends, 
will all pray that I may receive that Divine assist- 
ance, without which I cannot succeed, but with 
which success is certain. Again, I bid you an 
affectionate farewell.'' 

At the time of Lincoln's assassination these 
words were printed in a great variety of forms. 
In my home for a number of years, beautifully 
framed, these parting words addressed to the 
friends of many years in Springfield, 111., orna- 
mented my humble residence. And yet one of his 
biographers refers to this address as if its genuine- 
ness may well be doubted. At the time of its de- 
livery it was taken down and published broadcast 
in the papers of the day. 

But it would be wearisome to you to recite all 
the evidences bearing on the religious character 
of Abraham Lincoln. John G. Nicolay well says: 
" Benevolence and forgiveness were the very basis 
of his character; his world-wide humanity is aptly 
embodied in a phrase of his second inaugural: 
' With malice toward none, with charity for all' 
His nature was deeply religious, but he belonged 
to no denomination; he had faith in the eternal 
justice and boundless mercy of Providence, and 
made the Golden Rule of Christ his practical 
creed." 

In this passage Mr. Nicolay refers especially to 
Lincoln's second inaugural address. This address 



RELIGIOUS CHARACTER 293 

has the ring of an ancient Hebrew prophet. Only 
a man of faith and piety could deliver such an 
address. After the struggles through which the 
country had passed Lincoln's self-poise, his confi- 
dence in God, his belief in and affection for his 
fellow men, remained unabated. In Lincoln's 
second inaugural address he used these words: 

" Neither party expected for the war the mag- 
nitude or the duration which it has already at- 
tained: neither anticipated that the cause of the 
conflict might cease when or even before the con- 
flict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier 
triumph, and a result less fundamental and as- 
tounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to 
the same God, and each invokes His aid against 
the other. It may seem strange that any men 
should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wring- 
ing their bread from the sweat of other men's 
faces; but let us judge not, that we be not judged. 
The prayers of both could not be answered : that of 
neither has been answered fully. 

"The Almighty has His own puri)0scs. 'Wo 
unto the world because of oft'enses, for it must needs 
be that offenses come: but wo to that man by 
Avhom the offense cometh.' If we sliall suppose 
that American slavery is one of those offenses 
which, in the providence of God. must needs come, 
but which, having continued thron-h iiis ai>- 
pointed time, He now wills to remove, and that 
He gives to both North and South this terrible 
war, as the wo due to those by wIkmu the offnisc 
came, shall we discern therein any departure from 



294 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

those divine attributes which the believers in a 
living God always ascribe to Him. Fondly do 
we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty 
scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if 
God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled 
by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of 
unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop 
of blood drawn with a lash shall be paid with 
another drawn by a sword, as was said three thou- 
sand years ago, so still it must be said. ' The 
judgments of the Lord are true and righteous al- 
together.* 

" With malice toward none, with charity for 
all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to 
see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we 
are in; to bind up the Nation's wounds; to care 
for him who shall have borne the battle, and for 
his widow and his orphan — to do all which may 
achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among 
our selves and with all nations." 

The spirit of this address, under the circum- 
stances, is intensely Christian, and it is one of the 
most remarkable speeches in the literature of the 
world. 

When Lincoln was urged to issue his Proclama- 
tion of Emancipation he waited on God for guid- 
ance. He said to some who urged this matter, 
who were anxious to have the President act with- 
out delay : *' I hope it will not be irreverent for 
me to say that, if it is probable that God would 
reveal His will to others on a point so connected 
with my duty, it might be supposed He would 



RELIGIOUS CIIARACTKk j.,5 

reveal it directly to mc, for, unless I am more de- 
ceived in myself that I often am, it is my earnest 
desire to know the will of Providence in this mat- 
ter, and if I can learn what it is, I will do it." 

Stoddard, in his Life of Lincoln, gives attention 
beyond any of his biographers to the religious side 
of Lincoln's character. Commenting on the in- 
augural from which I have quoted, Mr. Stoddard 
said: 

" His mind and soul have reached tlie full de- 
velopment in a religious life so unusually intense 
and absorbing that it could not otherwise than 
utter itself in the grand sentences of his last ad- 
dress to the people. The knowledge had come, 
and the faith had come, and the charity had come, 
and with all had come the love of God which had 
put away all thought of rebellious resistance to 
the will of God leading, as in his earlier days of 
trial, to despair and insanity." 

I wish to call special attention to Lincoln's 
temperance habits. He was a teetotaler so far as 
the use of intoxicating liquors as a beverage was 
concerned. When the committee of the Chicago 
Convention waited upon Lincoln to inform hnn of 
his nomiipea^n he treated them to ice-water and 

said : 

" Gentlemen, we must pledge our mutual llealtil^ 
in the most healthy beverage which God has given 
to man. It is the only beverage 1 have ever uscl 
or allowed in my family, and I cannot conscien- 
tiously depart from it on the present^ occasion. It 
is pure Adam's ale from the spring." 



296 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

Mr. John Hay, one of his biographers, says: 
" Mr. Lincoln was a man of exceedingly temper- 
ate habits. He made no use of either whisky or 
tobacco during all the years that I knew him." 

Abraham Lincoln was a model in every respect 
but one. It was a mistake on the part of this 
great and good man that he never identified him- 
self openly with the Church. I know what can 
be said in favor of his position. It is not, however, 
satisfactory. If all men were to act in this matter 
as Lincoln did, there would be no Church. This 
is obvious. Hence the mistake which he made. 
Otherwise, as to his personal habits ; as to his con- 
fidence in God; as to his faith in man; as to his 
conception and use of the Bible ; as to his habits 
of prayer; as to his judicial fairness; as to his 
sympathy with men — in all these respects, as in 
many others, Abraham Lincoln is a character to 
be studied and imitated. 



TO THE SPIRIT OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN ^ 

(Reunion at Gettysburg Twenty-Five j^ears After 
the Battle) 

BY RICHARD WATSON GILDER 



Shade of our greatest, O look down to day! 
Here the long, dread midsummer battle roared, 

1 By permission of Houghton, MiMin & Company, 



A TYPICAL AMERICAN 297 

And brother in brother phmged the accursed 

sword ; — 
Here foe meets foe once more in proud array 

Yet not as once to harry and to slay 

But to strike hands, and with subhme accord 
Weep tears heroic for the souls that soared 
Quick from earth's carnage to the starry way. 

Each fought for what he deemed the people's good, 
And proved his bravery with his offered life. 
And sealed his honor with his outpoured blood ; 

But the Eternal did direct the strife, 

And on this sacred field one patriot host 
Now calls thee father, — dear, majestic ghosi ! 



LINCOLN AS A TYPICAL AMERICAN 

BY PHILLIPS BROOKS 

While I speak to you to-day, the body of the 
President who ruled this people, is lying, honored 
and loved, in our city. It is impossible, with that 
sacred presence in our midst, for me to stand and 
speak of ordinary topics which occui)y the pulpit. 
I must speak of him to-day; and I therefore un- 
dertake to do what I have intended to do at some 
future time, to invite you to study with me the 
character of Abraham Lincoln, the impulse cf In. 
life and the causes of his death. I know how 
hard it is to do it rightly, how impossible .t is to 
do it worthily. But I shall speak with conhdcncc. 
because I speak to those who love him, and whose 



298 LINCOLN^S BIRTHDAY 

ready love will fill out the deficiencies in a picture 
which my words will weakly try to draw. 

We take it for granted, first of all, that there 
is an essential connection between Mr. Lincoln's 
character and his violent and bloody death. It 
is no accident, no arbitrary decree of Providence. 
He lived as he did, and he died as he did, because 
he was what he was. The more we see of events 
the less we come to believe in any fate, or destiny, 
except the destiny of character. It will be our 
duty, then, to see what there was in the character 
of our great President that created the history of 
his life, and at last produced the catastrophe of 
his cruel death. After the first trembling horror, 
the first outburst of indignant sorrow, has grown 
calm, these are the questions which we are bound 
to ask and answer. 

It is not necessary for me even to sketch the 
biography of Mr. Lincoln. He was born in Ken- 
tucky fifty-six years ago, when Kentucky was a 
pioneer State. He lived, as a boy and man, the 
hard and needy life of a backwoodsman, a farmer, 
a river boatman, and, finally, by his own efforts at 
self-education, of an active, respected, influential 
citizen, in the half organized and manifold in- 
terests of a new and energetic community. From 
his boyhood up he lived in direct and vigorous 
contact with men and things, not as in older states 
and easier conditions with words and theories ; and 
both his moral convictions and intellectual opinions 
gathered from that contact a supreme degree of 



A TYPICAL AMERICAN 2<^ 

that character by which men knew him ; tliat char- 
acter which is the most distinctive possession of 
the best American nature ; that almost indescrib- 
able quality which we call, in general, clearness 
or truth, and which appears in the physical struc- 
ture as health, in the nioral constitution as honesty, 
m the mental structure as sagacity, and in the re- 
gion of active Hfe as practicalness. This one char- 
acter, with many sides, all shaped of the same es- 
sential force and testifying to the same iinier in- 
fluences, was what was powerful in him and de- 
creed for him the life he was to live and the death 
he was to die. We must take no smaller view 
then this of what he was. 

It is the great boon of such characters a- Mr. 
Lincoln's, that they reunite what God has joined 
together and man has put asunder. In him was 
vindicated the greatness of real goodness and the 
goodness of real greatness. The twain were one 
flesh. Not one of all the multitudes who stood 
and looked up to him for direction with such a 
loving and implicit trust can tell you to-day whether 
the wise judgments that he gave came m..>t from 
a strong head or a sound heart. If you ask them, 
they are puzzled. There are men as good a^ he. 
but they do bad things. There are men as mtelh- 
gent as he, but they do foolish things. In hun, 
goodness and intelligence combined and made thc.r 
best result of wisdom. For perfect truth consists 
not merely in the right constituents of charaet . 
but in their right and intimate conjunction. Ih.s 



300 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

union of the mental and moral into a life of ad- 
mirable simplicity is what we most admire in chil- 
dren; but in them it is unsettled and unpractical. 
But when it is preserved into manhood, deepened 
into reliability and maturity, it is that glorified 
childlikeness, that high and reverend simplicity, 
which shames and baffles the most accomplished 
astuteness, and is chosen by God to fill His pur- 
poses when He needs a ruler for His people, of 
faithful and true heart, such as he had, who was 
our President. 

Another evident quality of such character as this 
will be its freshness or newness, if we may so 
speak ; its freshness or readiness, — call it what you 
will, — its ability to take up new duties and do them 
in a new way, will result of necessity from its 
truth and clearness. The simple natures and forces 
will always be the most pliant ones. Water bends 
and shapes itself to any channel. Air folds and 
adapts itself to each new figure. They are the 
simplest and the most infinitely active things in 
nature. So this nature, in very virtue of its sim- 
plicity, must be also free, always fitting itself to 
each new need. It will always start from the most 
fundamental and eternal conditions, and work in 
the straightest, even though they be the newest 
ways, to the present prescribed purpose. In one 
word, it must be broad and independent and radical. 
So that freedom and radicalness in the character 
of Abraham Lincoln were not separate qualities, 
but the necessary results of his simplicity and 
childlikeness and truth. 



A TYPICAL AMERICAN 301 

Here then we have some conception of the man. 
Out of this character came the Hfe which we ad- 
mire and the death which we lament to-day. He 
was called in that character to that life and death. 
It was just the nature, as you see, which a new 
nation such as ours ought to produce. All the 
conditions of his birth, his youth, his manhood, 
which made him what he was, were not irregular 
and exceptional, but were the normal conditions 
of a new and simple country. His pioneer home 
in Indiana was a type of the pioneer land in which 
he lived. If ever there was a man who was a part 
of the time and country he lived in, this was he. 
The same simple respect for labor won in the 
school of work and incorporated into blood and 
muscle ; the same unassuming loyalty to the simple 
virtues of temperance and industry and integrity; 
the same sagacious judgment which had learned 
to be quick-eyed and quick-brained in the constant 
presence of emergency; the same direct and clear 
thought about things, social, political and religious, 
that was in him supremely, was in the people he 
was sent to rule. Surely, with such a type-man 
for ruler, there would seem to be but a smooth 
and even road over which he might lead the peo- 
ple whose character he represented into the new 
region of national happiness, and comfort, and use- 
fulness, for which that character had been designed 

The cause that Abraham Lincoln died for shall 
grow stronger by his death, stronger and sterner. 
Stronger to set its pillars deep into the structure 
Of our Nation's life; sterner to execute the justice 



302 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

of the Lord upon his enemies. Stronger to spread 
its arms and grasp our whole land into freedom ; 
sterner to sweep the last poor ghost of slavery out 
of our haunted homes. 

So let him lie there in our midst to-day and let 
our people go and bend with solemn thoughtful- 
ness and look upon his face and read the lessons 
of his burial. As he passed here on his journey 
from the Western home and told us what, by the 
help of God, he meant to do, so let him pause upon 
his way back to his Western grave and tell us, 
with a silence more eloquent than words, how 
bravely, how truly, by the strength of God, he did 
it. God brought him up as He brought David up 
from the sheep-folds to feed Jacob, His people, and 
Israel, His inheritance. He came up in earnest- 
ness and faith, and he goes back in triumph. As 
he pauses here to-day, and from his cold lips bids 
us bear witness how he has met the duty that was 
laid on him, what can we say out of our full 
hearts but this : — " He fed them with a faithful 
and true heart, and ruled them prudently with all 
his power." 

The Shepherd of the People! that old name 
that the best rulers ever craved. What ruler ever 
won it like this dead President of ours? He 
fed us faithfully and truly. He fed us with 
counsel when we were in doubt, with inspiration 
when we sometimes faltered, with caution when 
we would be rash, with calm, clear, trustful cheer- 
fulness through many an hour, when our hearts 



A TYPICAL AMERICAN 303 

were dark. He fed hungry souls all over the 
country with sympathy and consolation. He spread 
before the whole land feasts of great duty and de- 
votion and patriotism, on which the land grew 
strong. He fed us with solemn, solid truths. 
He taught us the sacredness of government, the 
wickedness of treason. He made our souls glad 
and vigorous with the love of liberty that was in 
his. He showed us how to love truth and yet be 
charitable — how to hate wrong and all oppres- 
sion, and yet not treasure one personal injury or 
insult. He fed all his people, from the highest to 
the lowest, from the most privileged down to the 
most enslaved. Best of all, he fed us with a rever- 
ent and genuine religion. He spread before us 
the love and fear of God just in that shape in 
which we need them most, and out of his faithful 
service of a higher Master, who of us has not 
taken and eaten and grown strong? "He fed 
them with a faithful and true heart." Yes, till 
the last. For at the last, behold him standing 
with hand reached out to feed the South with 
mercy and the North with charity, and the whole 
land with peace, when the Lord who had sent hmi 
called him, and his work was done ! 

He stood once on the battlefield of our own 
State and said of the brave men who had saved 
it words as noble as any countryman of ours ever 
spoke. Let us stand in the country he has saved 
and which is to be his grave and monument and 
say of Abraham Lincoln what he said of the soldiers 



304 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

who had died at Gettysburg. He stood there with 
their graves before him, and these are the words 
he said: 

" We cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we 
cannot hallow this ground. These brave men who 
struggled here have consecrated it far beyond our 
power to add or detract. The world will little 
note nor long remember what we say here, but 
it can never forget what they did here. It is for 
us the Hving rather to be dedicated to the un- 
finished work which they who fought here have 
thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us 
to be here dedicated to the great task remaining 
before us, that from these honored dead we take 
increased devotion to that cause for which they 
gave the last full measure of devotion ; that we here 
highly resolve that these dead shall not have died 
in vain; and this nation, under God shall have a 
new birth of freedom; and that government of the 
people, by the people and for the people, shall not 
perish from the earth." 

May God make us worthy of the memory of 
Abraham Lincoln! 



LINCOLN AS CAVALIER AND PURITAN 

BY H. W. GRADY 

The virtues and traditions of both happily still 
live for the inspiration of their sons and the sav- 
ing of the old fashion. But both Puritan and 
Cavalier were lost in the storm of their first revo- 



CAVALIER AND PURITAN 305 

lution, and the American citizen, supplanting both, 
and stronger than either, took possession of the 
Repubhc bought by their common blood and fash- 
ioned in wisdom, and charged himself with teach- 
ing men free government and establishing the 
voice of the people as the voice of God. Great 
types like valuable plants are slow to flower and 
fruit. But from the union of these colonists, from 
the straightening of their purposes and the cross- 
ing of their blood, slow perfecting through a cen- 
tury, came he who stands as the first typical Ameri- 
can, the first who comprehended within himself 
all the strength and gentleness, all the majesty and 
grace of this Republic — Abraham Lincoln. He 
was the sum of Puritan and Cavalier, for in his 
ardent nature were fused the virtues of both, and 
in the depths of his great soul the faults of both 
were lost. He was greater than Puritan, greater 
than Cavalier, in that he was American, and that 
in his homely form were first gathered the vast 
and thrilling forces of this ideal government — 
charging it with such tremendous meaning and 
so elevating it above human suffering that martyr- 
dom, though infamously aimed came as a fittmg 
croJn to a life consecrated from its cradle to 
human liberty. Let us, each cherishing his tra- 
ditions and honoring his fathers, build with rever- 
ent hands to the type of this simple but sublime 
life, in which all types are honored, and in the 
common glory we shall win as Americans, there 
will be plenty and to spare for your forefathers and 
for mine. 



3o6 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

LINCOLN, THE TENDER-HEARTED 

BY H. W. BOLTON 

His biography is written in blood and tears; 
uncounted millions arise and call him blessed; a 
redeemed and reunited republic is his monument. 
History embalms the memory of Richard the Lion- 
Hearted; here, too, our martyr finds loyal sepul- 
ture as Lincoln the tender-hearted. 

He was brave. While assassins swarmed in 
Washington, he went everywhere, without guard 
or arms. He was magnanimous. He harbored 
no grudge, nursed no grievance; was quick to for- 
give, and was anxious for reconciliation. Hear 
him appealing to the South : " We are not ene- 
mies, but friends. We must not be enemies. 
Though passion may have strained, it must not 
break, our bonds of affection. The mystic chords 
of memory, stretching from every battlefield and 
patriot grave to every loving heart and hearth- 
stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the 
chorus of the Union, when again touched, as 
surely they will be, by the better angels of our 
nature." 

He was compassionate. With what joy he 
brought liberty to the enslaved. He was forgiv- 
ing. In this respect he was strikingly suggestive 
of the Saviour. He was great. Time will but 
augment the greatness of his name and fame. 
Perhaps a greater man never ruled in this or any 



CHARACTER OF LINCOLN 307 

other nation. He was good and pure and incor- 
ruptible. He was a patriot ; he loved his country ; 
he poured out his soul unto death for it. He was 
human, and thus touched the chord that makes the 
whole world kin. 



THE CHARACTER OF LINCOLN 

BY W. H. HERNDON ( LINCOLN'S LAW PARTNER) 

The true peculiarity of Mr. Lincoln has not been 
seen by his various biographers; or, if seen, they 
have failed wofully to give it that prominence 
which it deserves. It is said that Newton saw 
an apple fall to the ground from a tree, and beheld 
the law of the universe in that fall; Shakespeare 
saw human nature in the laugh of a man ; Profes- 
sor Owen saw the animal in its claw ; and Spencer 
saw the evolution of the universe in the growth of 
a seed. Nature was suggestive to all these men. 
Mr. Lincoln no less saw philosophy in a story, and 
a schoolmaster in a joke. No man, no men, saw 
nature, fact, thing, or man from his stand-point. 
His was a new and original position, which was 
always suggesting, hinting something to him. Na- 
ture, insinuations, hints and suggestions were new, 
fresh, original and odd to him. The world, fact, 
man, principle, all had their powers of suggestion 
to his susceptible soul. They continually put hmi 
in mind of something. He was odd, fresh, new, 
original, and peculiar, for this reason, that he was 



3o8 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

a new, odd, and original creation and fact. He 
had keen susceptibilities to the hints and sugges- 
tions of nature, which always put him in mind of 
something known or unknown. Hence his power 
and tenacity of what is called association of ideas 
must have been great. His memory was tenacious 
and strong. His susceptibility to all suggestions 
and hints enabled him at will to call up readily the 
associated and classified fact and idea. 

As an evidence of this, especially peculiar to Mr. 
Lincoln, let me ask one question. Were Mr. Lin- 
coln's expression and language odd and original, 
standing out peculiar from those of all other men ? 
What does this imply? Oddity and originality of 
vision as well as expression; and what is expres- 
sion in words and human language, but a telling of 
what we see, defining the idea arising from and 
created by vision and view in us? Words and 
language are but the counterparts of the idea — 
the other half of the idea; they are but the sting- 
ing, hot, heavy, leaden bullets that drop from the 
mold; and what are they in a rifle with powder 
stuffed behind them and fire applied, but an em- 
bodied force pursuing their object? So are words 
an embodied power feeling for comprehension in 
other minds. Mr. Lincoln was often perplexed to 
give expression to his ideas : first, because he was 
not master of the English language : and, secondly, 
because there were no words in it containing the 
coloring, shape, exactness, power, and gravity of 
his ideas. He was frequently at a loss for a word, 
and hence was compelled to resort to stories, max- 



CHARACTER OF LINCOLN 309 

ims, and jokes to embody his idea, that it might be 
comprehended. So true was this pecuhar mental 
vision of his, that though mankind has been gather- 
ing, arranging, and classifying facts for thousands 
of years, Lincoln's peculiar stand-point could give 
him no advantage of other men's labor. Hence he 
tore up to the deep foundations all arrangements of 
facts, and coined and arranged new plans to govern 
himself. He was compelled, from his peculiar 
mental organization, to do this. His labor was 
great, continuous, patient and all-enduring. 

The truth about this whole matter is that Mr. 
Lincoln read less and thought more than any man 
in his sphere in America. No man can put his 
finger on any great book written in the last or 
present century that he read. When young he read 
the Bible, and when of age he read Shakes- 
peare. This latter book was scarcely ever out 
of his mind. Mr. Lincoln is acknowledged to 
have been a great man, but the question is, what 
made him great? I repeat, that he read less and 
thought more than any man of his standing in 
America, if not in the world. He possessed origi- 
nality and power of thought in an eminent degree. 
He was cautious, cool, concentrated, with continu- 
ity of reflection ; was patient and enduring. These 
are some of the grounds of his wonderful success. 

Not only was nature, man, fact and principle sug- 
gestive to Mr. Lincoln, not only had he accurate 
and exact perceptions, but he was causative, 1. e 
his mind ran back behind all facts, things and 
principles to their origin, history and first cause, to 



310 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

that point where forces act at once as effect and 
cause. He would stop and stand in the street and 
analyze a machine. He would whittle things to a 
point, and then count the numberless inclined 
planes, and their pitch, making the point. Mas- 
tering and defining this, he would then cut that 
point back, and get a broad transverse section of 
his pine stick, and peel and define that. Clocks, 
omnibuses and language, paddle-wheels and idioms, 
never escaped his observation and analysis. Be- 
fore he could form any idea of anything, before he 
would express his opinion on any subject, he must 
know it in origin and history, in substance and 
quaHty, in magnitude and gravity. He must know 
his subject inside and outside, upside and down 
side. He searched his own mind and nature thor- 
oughly, as I have often heard him say. He must 
analyze a sensation, an idea, and words, and run 
them back to their origin, history, purpose and des- 
tiny. He was most emphatically a remorseless an- 
alyzer of facts, things and principles. When all 
these processes had been well and thoroughly gone 
through, he could form an opinion and express it, 
but no sooner. He had no faith. " Say so's " he 
had no respect for, coming though they might from 
tradition, power or authority. 

All things, facts and principles had to run 
through his crucible and be tested by the fires of 
his analytic mind ; and hence, when he did speak, 
his utterances rang out gold-like, quick, keen and 
current upon the counters of the understanding. 
He reasoned logically, through analogy and com- 



CHARACTER OF LINCOLN 311 

parison. All opponents dreaded him in his origi- 
nality of idea, condensation, definition and force of 
expression, and woe be to the man who hugged to 
his bosom a secret error if Mr. Lincoln got on the 
chase of it. I say, woe to him ! Time could hide 
the error in no nook or corner of space in which he 
would not detect and expose it. 



The great predominating elements of Mr. Lin- 
coln's peculiar character, were : First, his great ca- 
pacity and power of reason; secondly, his excellent 
understanding ; thirdly, an exalted idea of the sense 
of right and equity ; and, fourthly, his intense ven- 
eration of what was true and good. His reason 
ruled despotically all other faculties and qualities 
of his mind. His conscience and heart were ruled 
by it. His conscience was ruled by one faculty — 
reason. His heart was ruled by two faculties — 
reason and conscience. I know it is generally be- 
lieved that Mr. Lincoln's heart, his love and kind- 
ness, his tenderness and benevolence, were his rul- 
ing qualities ; but this opinion is erroneous in every 
particular. First, as to his reason. He dwelt in 
the mind, not in the conscience, and not in the 
heart. He lived and breathed and acted from his 
reason — the throne of logic and the home of prin- 
ciple, the realm of Deity in man. It is from this 
point that Mr. Lincoln must be viewed. His 
views were correct and original. He was cautious 
not to be deceived; he was patient and enduring. 
He had concentration and great continuity of 
thought; he had a profound analytic power; his 



312 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

visions were clear, and he was emphatically the 
master of statement. His pursuit of the truth was 
indefatigable, terrible. He reasoned from his well- 
chosen principles with such clearness, force, and 
compactness, that the tallest intellects in the land 
bowed to him with respect. He was the strongest 
man I ever saw, looking at him from the stand- 
point of his reason — the throne of his logic. He 
came down from that height with an irresistible and 
crushing force. His printed speeches will prove 
this ; but his speeches before courts, especially be- 
fore the Supreme Courts of the State and Nation, 
would dem.onstrate it: unfortunately, none of them 
have been preserved. Here he demanded time to 
think and prepare. The office of reason is to de- 
termine the truth. Truth is the power of reason — 
the child of reason. He loved and idolized truth 
for its own sake. It was reason's food. 

Conscience, the second great quality and force 
of Mr. Lincoln's character, is that faculty which 
loves the just: its office is justice; right and equity 
are its correlatives. It decides upon all acts of all 
people at all times. Mr. Lincoln had a deep, broad, 
living conscience. His great reason told him what 
was true, good and bad, right, wrong, just or unjust, 
and his conscience echoed back its decision ; and it 
was from this point that he acted and spoke and 
wove his character and fame among us. His con- 
science ruled his heart ; he was always just before he 
was gracious. This was his motto, his glory : and 
this is as it should be. It cannot be truthfully said 
of any mortal man that he was always just. Mr. 



CHARACTER OF LINCOLN 313 

Lincoln was not always just; but his great general 
life was. It follows that if Mr. Lincoln had great 
reason and great conscience, he was an honest man. 
His great and general life was honest, and he was 
justly and rightfully entitled to the appellation, 
*' Honest Abe." Honesty was his great polar star. 
Mr. Lincoln had also a good understanding; that 
is, the faculty that understands and comprehends 
the exact state of things, their near and remote re- 
lations. The understanding does not necessarily 
inquire for the reason of things. I must here re- 
peat that Mr. Lincoln was an odd and original 
man ; he lived by himself and out of himself. He 
could not absorb. He was a very sensitive man, 
unobtrusive and gentlemanly, and often hid him- 
self in the common mass of men, in order to pre- 
vent the discovery of his individuality. He had 
no insulting egotism, and no pompous pride; no 
haughtiness, and no aristocracy. He was not in- 
different, however, to approbation and public 
opinion. He was not an upstart, and had no in- 
solence. He was a meek, quiet, unobtrusive gentle- 
man. . . . Read Mr. Lincoln's speeches, let- 
ters, messages and proclamations, read his whole 
record in his actual life, and you cannot fail to 
perceive that he had good understanding. He un- 
derstood and fully comprehended himself, and what 
he did and why he did it, better than most livmg 
men. 

There are contradictory opinions in reference to 
Mr. Lincoln's heart and humanity. One opinion is 



314 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

that he was cold and obdurate, and the other opin- 
ion is that he was warm and affectionate. I have 
shown you that Mr. Lincoln first lived and 
breathed upon the world from his head and con- 
science. I have attempted to show you that he 
lived and breathed upon the world through the ten- 
der side of his heart, subject at all times and places 
to the logic of his reason, and to his exalted sense 
of right and equity; namely, his conscience. He 
always held his conscience subject to his head; 
he held his heart always subject to his head and 
conscience. His heart was the lowest organ, the 
weakest of the three. Some men would reverse 
this order, and declare that his heart was his 
ruling organ; that always manifested itself with 
love, regardless of truth and justice, right and 
equity. The question still is, was Mr. Lincoln a 
cold, heartless man, or a warm, affectionate man? 
Can a man be a warm-hearted man who is all head 
and conscience, or nearly so? What, in the first 
place, do we mean by a warm-hearted man? Is it 
one who goes out of himself and reaches for others 
spontaneously because of a deep love of humanity, 
apart from equity and truth, and does what it does 
for love's sake? If so, Mr. Lincoln was a cold 
man. Or, do we mean that when a human being, 
man or child, approached him in behalf of a matter 
of right, and that the prayer of such a one was 
granted, that this is an evidence of his love? The 
African was enslaved, his rights were violated, and 
a principle was violated in them. Rights imply ob- 
ligations as well as duties. Mr. Lincoln was Presi- 



CHARACTER OF LINCOLN 315 

dent; he was in a position that made it his duty, 
through his sense of right, his love of principle, his 
constitutional obligations imposed upon him by- 
oath of office, to strike the blow against slavery. 
But did he do it for love? He himself has an- 
swered the question : " I would not free the slaves 
if I could preserve the Union without it." I use 
this argument against his too enthusiastic friends. 
If you mean that this is love for love's sake, then 
Mr. Lincoln was a warm-hearted man — not other- 
wise. To use a general expression, his general life 
was cold. He had, however, a strong latent ca- 
pacity to love; but the object must first come as 
principle, second as right, and third as lovely. He 
loved abstract humanity when it was oppressed. 
This was an abstract love, not concrete in the in- 
dividual, as said by some. He rarely used the term 
love, yet was he tender and gentle. He gave the 
key-note to his own character when he said, " with 
malice toward none, with charity for all," he 
did what he did. He had no intense loves, and 
hence no hates and no malice. He had a broad 
charity for imperfect man, and let us imitate his 
great life in this. 

" But was not Mr. Lincoln a man of great hu- 
manity?" asks a friend at my elbow, a little an- 
grily; to which I reply, "Has not that question 
been answered already?" Let us suppose that 1 
has not. We must understand each other. What 
do you mean by humanity? Do you mean that he 
had much of human nature in him? If so I will 
grant that he was a man of humanity. Do you 



3i6 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

mean, if the above definition is unsatisfactory, that 
Mr. Lincohi was tender and kind? Then I agree 
with you. But if you mean to say that he so 
loved a man that he would sacrifice truth and right 
for him, for love's sake, then he was not a man of 
humanity. Do you mean to say that he so loved 
man, for love's sake, that his heart led him out of 
himself, and compelled him to go in search of the 
objects of his love, for their sake? He never, to 
my knowledge, manifested this side of his charac- 
ter. Such is the law of human nature, that it can- 
not be all head, all conscience, and all heart at one 
and the same time in one and the same person. 
Our Maker made it so, and where God through 
reason blazed the path, walk therein boldly. Mr. 
Lincoln's glory and power lay in the just combina- 
tion of head, conscience, and heart, and it is here 
that his fame must rest, or not at all. 

Not only were Mr. Lincoln's perceptions good; 
not only was nature suggestive to him ; not only 
was he original and strong; not only had he great 
reason, good understanding; not only did he love 
the true and good — the eternal right ; not only 
was he tender and kind — but in due proportion 
and in legitimate subordination, had he a glorious 
combination of them all. Through his percep- 
tions — the suggestiveness of nature, his originality 
and strength; through his magnificent reason, his 
understanding, his conscience, his tenderness and 
kindness, his heart, rather than love — he approxi- 
mated as nearly as most human beings in this im- 
perfect state to an embodiment of the great moral 



"WITH CHARITY FOR ALL" 317 

principle, " Do unto others as ye would they should 
do unto you." 



" WITH CHARITY FOR ALL " 

BY WILLIAM T. SHERMAN 

I know, when I left him, that I was more than 
ever impressed by his kindly nature, his deep and 
earnest sympathy with the afflictions of the whole 
people, resulting from the war, and by the march 
of hostile armies through the South; and that his 
earnest desire seemed to be to end the war speedily, 
without more bloodshed or devastation, and to re- 
store all the men of both sections to their homes. 
In the language of his second inaugural address he 
seemed to have " charity for all, malice toward 
none," and, above all, an absolute faith in the cour- 
age, manliness, and integrity of the armies in the 
field. When at rest or listening, his legs and arms 
seemed to hang almost lifeless, and his face was 
care-worn and haggard ; but the moment he began 
to talk his face lightened up, his tall form, as it 
were, unfolded, and he was the very impersonation 
of good-humor and fellowship. The last words I 
recall as addressed to me were that he would feel 
better when I was back at Goldsboro'. We parted 
at the gang-way of the River Queen about noon of 
March 28th, and I never saw him again. Of all the 
men I ever met, he seemed to possess more of the 
elements of greatness, combined with goodness, 
than any other. 



3i8 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

IDA VOSE WOODBURY 

Again thy birthday dawns, O man beloved, 

Dawns on the land thy blood was shed to save, 

And hearts of millions, by one impulse moved. 
Bow and fresh laurels lay upon thy grave. 

The years but add new luster to thy glory, 
And watchmen on the heights of vision see 

Reflected in thy life the old, old story, 
The story of the Man of Galilee. 

We see in thee the image of Him kneeling 
Before the close-shut tomb, and at the word 

*' Come forth," from out the blackness long conceal- 
ing 
There rose a man ; clearly again was heard 

The Master's voice, and then, his cerements broken, 
Friends of the dead a living brother see; 

Thou, at the tomb where millions lay, hast spoken : 
" Loose him and let him go ! " — the slave was 
free. 

And in the man so long in thraldom hidden 
We see the likeness of the Father's face, 

Clod changed to soul; by thy atonement bidden, 
We hasten to the uplift of a race. 



FEBRUARY TWELFTH 319 

Spirit of Lincoln ! Summon all thy loyal ; 

Nerve them to follow where thy feet have trod, 
To prove, by voice as clear and deed as royal, 

Man's brotherhood in our c«ie Father — God. 



FEBRUARY TWELFTH 

BY MARY H. HOWLISTON 

It was early in the evening in a shop where flags 
were sold. 

There were large flags, middle-sized flags, small 
flags and little bits of flags. The finest of all was 
Old Glory. Old Glory was made of silk and hung 
in graceful folds from the wall. 

"Attention!" called Old Glory. 

Starry eyes all over the room looked at him. 

"What day of the m.onth is it?" 

" February Twelfth," quickly answered the flags. 

" Whose birthday is it? " " Abraham Lincoln's." 

" Where is he buried? " " Springfield, Illinois." 

"Very well," said Old Glory, "you are to take 
some of Uncle Sam's children there to-night." 

" Yes, captain," said the flags, wondering what 

he meant. 

"First, I must know whether you are good 
American flags. How many red stripes have 

you?" 

" Seven ! " was the answer. 

" How many white stripes? " " Six ! " 



320 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

" How many stars ? " " Forty-five ! " shouted 
the large flags. 

The little ones said nothing. 

" Ah, I see," said Old Glory, " but you are not to 
blame. Do you see that open transom ? " he went 
on. " Go through it into the street, put your staffs 
into the hands of any little boys you find and bring 
them here." 

"Yes, captain," called the flags, as they fluttered 
away. 

Last of all, Old Glory pulled his silken stripes 
into the hallway and waited for the flags to come 
back. " It's much too cold for little girls," he said 
to himself. " Their pretty noses might freeze." 

By and by the flags came back, each bringing a 
small boy. Old Glory looked at them. 

" What's the matter? " said he ; *' you don't seem 
pleased." 

No one spoke, the little boys stared with round 
eyes at Old Glory, but held tightly to the flags. 

At last one of the flags said : " Please, captain, 
these are the only little boys we could find." 

"Well!" said Old Glory. 

" And we think they don't belong to Uncle Sam," 
was the answer. 

"Why not?" said Old Glory. 

" Some of them are ragged," called one flag. 

" And some are dirty," said another. 

" This one is a colored boy," said another. 

" Some of them can't speak English at all." 

" The one I found, why, he blacks boots ! " 

" And mine is a newsboy." 



FEBRUARY TWELFTH 321 

" Mine sleeps in a dry goods box." 

" Mine plays a violin on the street corner." 

" Just look at mine, captain ! " said the last flag 
proudly, when the rest were through. 

" What about him? " asked Old Glory. 

" Fm sure he belongs to Uncle Sam ; he lives in 
a brown-stone house and he wears such good 
clothes ! " 

" Of course I belong to Uncle Sam," said the 
brown-stone boy quickly, " but I think these street 
boys do not." 

" There, there ! " said Old Glory ; " I'll telephone 
to Washington and find out," and Old Glory 
floated away. 

The little boys watched and waited. 

Back came Old Glory. 

" It's all right," said he, " Uncle Sam says every 
one of you belongs to him and he v/ants you to be 
brave and honest, for some day he may need you 
for soldiers ; oh, yes ! and he said, ' Tell those poor 
little chaps who have such a hard time of it and 
no one to help them, that Mr. Lincoln was a poor 
boy too, and yet he was the grandest and best of 
all my sons." 

The moon was just rising. 

It made the snow and ice shine. 

" It's almost time," said Old Glory softly. 

"Hark' you must not wink, nor cough nor 
sneeze nor move for three-quarters of a mmute! " 
That was dreadful! 
The newsboy swallowed a cough. 



322 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

The boot-black held his breath for fear of sneez- 
ing. 

The brown-stone boy shut his eyes so as not to 
wink. 

They all stood as if turned to stone. 

Tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, came a faint sound of bells. 

Nothing else was heard but the beating of their 
own hearts. 

In exactly three-quarters of a minute, Old Glory 
said, " What do you think of that ? " 

Behold! a wonderful fairy sleigh, white as a 
snowdrift, and shining in the moonlight as if 
covered with diamond dust. 

It was piled high with softest cushions and robes 
of fur. 

It was drawn by thirteen fairy horses, with arch- 
ing necks and flowing manes and tails. 

Each horse wore knots of red, white and blue at 
his ears and the lines were wound with ribbons of 
the same. 

" Jump in," said Old Glory. 

Into the midst of the cushions and furs they 
sprang. 

Crack went the whip, tinkle went the bells. 
Over the house-tops, through the frosty air, among 
the moonbeams, up and away sailed fairy horses 
and sleigh, American flags and Uncle Sam's boys. 

Santa Claus with his reindeer never went faster. 

Presently the tinkling bells were hushed, and the 
fairy horses stood very still before the tomb of 
Abraham Lincoln. 



TWO BIRTHDAYS 323 

^ " Come," said Old Glory, and he led them in- 
side. 

You must get your father or mother to tell you 
what they saw there. 

Just before they left, a dirty little hand touched 
Old Glory and a shrill little voice said : " I'd like 
to leave my flag here. May I ? " 

" And may I ? " said another. 

Old Glory looked around and saw the same wish 
in the other faces. 

*'You forget," said he, "that the flags are not 
yours. It would not be right to keep them. What 
did the people call Mr. Lincoln ? You don't know ? 
Well, ril tell you. It was * Honest Old Abe,' and 
Uncle Sam wants you to be like him." 

Again the merry bells tinkled, again the proud 
horses, with their flowing manes and tails, sprang 
into the air, and before the moon had said " good- 
night " to the earth, they were back at the flag shop. 

The very moment they reached it, horses and 
sleigh, cushions and robes, melted away and the 
children saw them no more. 



TWO FEBRUARY BIRTHDAYS 
(Exercise for the Schoolroom) 

BY LIZZIE M. HADLEY AND CLARA J. DENTON 
FOR EIGHT BOYS. 

This dialogtte, or exercise, is to be given by ei?:ht 
boys. While they and the school are singing the first 



324 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

song the boys march upon the stage and form into a 
semicircle, the four boys speaking for Washington on 
the right, the other four (for Lincoln) on the left. 
Portraits of Washington and Lincoln should be placed 
in a convenient position on the stage beneath a double 
arch wreathed with evergreens. The portraits should 
be draped with American flags. Each one of the boys 
should wear a small American flag pinned to his coat. 

SONG. TUNE, Rally 'Round the Flag 

We are marching from the East, 
We are marching from the West, 

Singing the praises of a nation. 
That all the world may hear 
Of the men we hold so dear, 

Singing the praises of a nation. 

CHORUS 

For Washington and Lincoln, 

Hurrah, all hurrah. 
Sing as we gather 

Here from afar, 
Yes, for Washington and Lincoln, 

Let us ever sing. 
Sing all the praises of a nation. 

Yes, we love to sing this song. 
As we proudly march along, 

Singing the praises of the heroes. 
Through this great and happy land. 
We would sound their names so grand. 

Singing the praises of our heroes. 



TWO BIRTHDAYS 325 



CHORUS 

All: We have come to tell you of two men 
whose names must be linked together as long as the 
nation shall stand, Washington and Lincoln. They 
stand for patriotism, goodness, truth and true 
manliness. Hand in hand they shall go down the 
centuries together. 

First Speaker on the Washington Side: 
Virginia sends you greeting. I come in her name 
in honor of her illustrious son, George Washington, 
and she bids me tell you that he was born in her 
state, Feb. 22, 1732. 

All : 'Twas years and years ago. 

First Speaker : Yes, more than a hundred and 
seventy, nearly two centuries. 

All : A long time to be remembered. 

First Speaker: Yes, but Washington's name 
is still cherished and honored all over the land 
which his valor and wisdom helped save, and, for 
generations yet to come, the children of the schools 
shall give him a million-tongued fame. 

Second Speaker: Vigrinia bids me tell you 
that as a boy, Washington was manly, brave, obedi- 
ent and kind, and that he never told a lie. 

Song: (Either as solo or chorus). Air, IVhat 
Can the Matter Be? 

Dear, dear, who can believe it? 
Dear, dear, who can conceive it? 
Dear, dear, we scarce can believe that 
Never did he tell a lie. 



326 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

O, surely temptation must oft have assailed him, 
But courage and honor we know never failed him, 
So let us all follow his wondrous example, 
And never, no never tell lies. 
And never, no never, tell lies. 

Third Speaker: A brave and manly boy, he 
began work early in life, and, in 1748, when only 
sixteen years old, he was a surveyor of lands, and 
took long tramps into the wilderness. In 1775 
came the Revolutionary War, and he was appointed 
commander-in-chief of the American Army. In 
1787 he was elected president of the convention 
which framed the constitution of our country. 

Fourth Speaker: In 1789 he was chosen first 
president of the United States. He was re-elected 
in 1793 and, at the close of the second term he re- 
tired to private life at his beautiful and beloved 
home, Mt. Vernon. He died there, Dec. 14, 1799, 
honored and mourned by the whole nation, and 
leaving to the world a life which is a " pattern for 
all public men, teaching what greatness is and what 
is the pathway to undying fame," and richly de- 
serving the title, '' Father of his country." 

All : " First in war, first in peace, and first in 
the hearts of his countrymen," he was second to 
none in the humble and endearing scenes of private 
life. 

Boys Representing Lincoln : Washington was 
a great and good man, and so, too, was the man 
whom we delight to honor, whose title, '*' Honest 
Abe," has passed into the language of our times 



TWO BIRTHDAYS 327 

as a synonym for all that is just and honest in man. 

First Speaker on the Lincoln Side: Ken- 
tucky is proud to claim Abraham Lincoln as one of 
her honored sons, and she bids me say that he was 
born in that state in Hardin County, Feb. 12, 1809. 
Indiana, too, claims him, he was her son by adop- 
tion, for, when but seven years old, his father 
moved to the southwestern part of that state. Il- 
linois also has a claim upon him. It was there that 
he helped build a log cabin for a new home, and 
split rails to fence in a cornfield. Afterwards he 
split rails for a suit of clothes, one hundred rails for 
every yard of cloth, and so won the name, '' The 
Rail-spHtter." 

Second Speaker: In 1828 he became a flat- 
boatman and twice went down the river to New 
Orleans. In 1832 he served as captain of a com- 
pany in the Black Hawk War. After the war he 
kept a country store, and won a reputation for 
honesty. Then, for a while, he was a surveyor, 
next, a lawyer, and in 1834 he was elected to the 
Legislature of Illinois. 

Third Speaker: In 1846 he was made a mem- 
ber of Congress, in i860 he was elected president 
of the United States. 

Fourth Speaker: The Civil War followed 
and in 1864 he was elected president for the second 
term. On April 14 he was shot by an assassin and 
died on the morning of the 15th. 



328 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

SONG BY school: AIR, John Brown's Body 

In spite of changing seasons of the years that 

come and go, 
Still his name to-day is cherished in the hearts of 

friend and foe, 
And the land for which he suffered e'er shall honor 

him we know, 

While truth goes marching on. 

CHORUS 

Both Groups Together: To both these men, 
George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, we, 
the children of the nation, owe a debt of gratitude 
which we can only repay by a lifetime of work, 
for God, humanity, and our country. Both have 
left behind them words of wisdom, which, if heeded, 
will make us wiser and better boys and girls, and 
so wiser and better men and women. 

Two Boys from the Washington Group: 
Washington said, " Without virtue and without in- 
tegrity, the finest talents and the most brilliant ac- 
complishments can never gain the respect or con- 
ciliate the esteem of the most valuable part of man- 
kind." 

Two Boys from the Lincoln Group: Lincoln 
said, " I have one vote, and I shall always cast that 
against wrong as long as I live." 

Two Boys from Washington Group: "If to 
please the people we offer what we ourselves dis- 
approve, how can we afterwards defend our 
work?" 



TWO BIRTHDAYS 329 

Two Boys from Lincoln Group : Lincoln said, 
" In every event of life, it is right makes might." 

All: O, wise and great! 
Their like, perchance, we ne'er shall see again, 
But let us write their golden words upon the hearts 
of men. 

song: tune ''America" 

Turn now unto the past, 
There, long as life shall last, 
Their names you'll find. 
Faithful and true and brave. 
Sent here our land to save. 
Men whom our father gave. 
Brave, true, and kind. 

{ExeuntX 



VIII 
LINCOLN'S PLACE IN HISTORY 



THE THREE GREATEST AMERICANS 

BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

As the generations slip away, as the dust of con- 
flict settles, and as through the clearing air we 
look back with keener vision into the Nation's past, 
mightiest among the mighty dead, loom up the 
three great figures of Washington, Lincoln and 
Grant. These three greatest men have taken their 
places among the great men of all nations, the 
great men of all times. They stood supreme in the 
two great crises of our history, in the two great 
occasions, when we stood in the van of all humanity, 
and struck the most effective blows tliat have ever 
been struck for the cause of human freedom under 
the law. 



HIS CHOICE AND HIS DESTINY 

BY F. M. BRISTOL 

As God appeared to Solomon and Joseph in 
dreams to urge them to make wise choices for the 
power of great usefulness, so it would appear that 
in their waking dreams the Almighty appeared to 
such history-making souls as Paul and Constan- 
tine, Alfred the Great, Washington, and Lnicoln. 
333 



334 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

It was the commonest kind of a life this young 
Lincoln was living on the frontier of civilization, 
but out of that commonest kind of living came the 
uncommonest kind of character of these modern 
years, the sublimest liberative power in the history 
of freedom. • Lincoln felt there, as a great awk- 
ward boy, that God and history had something for 
him to do. He dreamed his destiny. He chose to 
champion the cause of the oppressed. He vowed 
that when the chance came he would deal slavery a 
hard blow. When he came to his high office, he 
came with a character which had been fitting itself 
for its grave responsibilities. He had been making 
wise choices on the great questions of human 
rights, of national union, of constitutional freedom, 
of universal brotherhood. 



FROM "REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM 
LINCOLN '' * 

BY ROBERT G. INGERSOLL 

Strange mingling of mirth and tears, of the 
tragic and grotesque, of cap and crown, of Socra- 
tes and Rabelais, of ^sop and Marcus Aurelius, 
of all that is gentle and just, humorous and honest, 
merciful, wise, laughable, lovable and divine, and 
all consecrated to the use of man; while through 
all, and over all, an overwhelming sense of obliga- 
tion, of chivalric loyalty to truth, and upon all the 
shadow of the tragic end. 

^By permission of Mr. C. P, Farrell. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 335 

Nearly all the great historic characters are im- 
possible monsters, disproportioned by flattery, or by 
calumny deformed. We know nothing of their 
peculiarities, or nothing but their peculiarities. 
About the roots of these oaks there clings none of 
the earth of humanity. Washington is now only a 
steel engraving. About the real man who lived 
and loved and hated and schemed we know but 
little. The glass through which we look at him 
is of such high magnifying power that the features 
are exceedingly indistinct. Hundreds of people 
are now engaged in smoothing out the lines of 
Lincoln's face — forcing all features to the com- 
mon mold — so that he may be known, not as he 
really was, but, according to their poor standard, 
as he should have been. 

Lincoln was not a type. He stands alone — no 
ancestors, no fellows, and no successors. He had 
the advantage of living in a new country, of social 
equality, of personal freedom, of seeing in the 
horizon 'of his future the perpetual star of hope. 
He preserved his individuality and his self-respect. 
He knew and mingled with men of every kind; 
and, after all, men are the best books. He be- 
came acquainted with the ambitions and hopes of 
the heart, the means used to accomplish ends, the 
springs of action and the seeds of thought. He 
was familiar with nature, with actual things, with 
common facts. He loved and appreciated the poem 
of the year, the drama of the seasons. 

In a new country, a man must possess at least 
three virtues - honesty, courage and generosity. 



S36 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

In cultivated society, cultivation is often more im- 
portant than soil. A well executed counterfeit 
passes more readily than a blurred genuine. It is 
necessary only to observe the unwritten laws of 
society — to be honest enough to keep out of 
prison, and generous enough to subscribe in pub- 
lic — where the subscription can be defended as 
an investment. In a new country, character is es- 
sential ; in the old, reputation is sufficient. In the 
new, they find what a man really is ; in the old, 
he generally passes for what he resembles. People 
separated only by distance are much nearer to- 
gether than those divided by the walls of caste. 

It is no advantage to live in a great city, where 
poverty degrades and failure brings despair. The 
fields are lovelier than paved streets, and the great 
forests than walls of brick. Oaks and elms are 
more poetic than steeples and chimneys. In the 
country is the idea of home. There you see the 
rising and setting sun ; you become acquainted with 
the stars and clouds. The constellations are your 
friends. You hear the rain on the roof and listen 
to the rhythmic sighing of the winds. You are 
thrilled by the resurrection called Spring, touched 
and saddened by Autumn, the grace and poetry of 
death. Every field is a picture, a landscape; every 
landscape, a poem ; every flower, a tender thought ; 
and every forest, a fairy-land. In the country you 
preserve your identity — your personality. There 
you are an aggregation of atoms, but in the city you 
are only an atom of an aggregation. 

Lincoln never finished his education. To the 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 337 

night of his death he was a pupil, a learner, an in- 
quirer, a seeker after knowledge. You have no 
idea how many men are spoiled by what is called 
education. For the most part, colleges are places 
where pebbles are polished and diamonds are 
dimmed. If Shakespeare had graduated at Ox- 
ford, he might have been a quibbling attorney or a 
hypocritical parson. 

Lincoln was a many-sided man, acquainted with 
smiles and tears, complex in brain, single in heart, 
cHrect as light; and his words, candid as mirrors, 
gave the perfect image of his thought. He was 
never afraid to ask — never too dignified to admit 
that he did not know. No man had keener wit or 
kinder humor. He was not solemn. Solemnity is 
a mask worn by ignorance and hypocrisy — it is 
the preface, prologue, and index to the cunning 
or the stupid. He was natural m his life and 
thought — master of the story-teller's art, in illus- 
tration apt, in application perfect, liberal in speech, 
shocking Pharisees and prudes, using any word 
that wit could disinfect. 

He was a logician. Logic is the necessary prod- 
uct of intelligence and sincerity. It cannot be 
learned It is the child of a clear head and a good 
heart He was candid, and with candor often de- 
ceived the deceitful. He had intellect without ar- 



;,"genius without pride, and religion wilh- 
t — 
out deceit. 



out cant -that is to say, without b.gotry an 



d wilh- 



He was an orator - dear, sincere, natural. He 
did noTpretend. He did not say what he thought 



338 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

others thought, but what he thought. If you wish 
to be subhme you must be natural — you must keep 
close to the grass. You must sit by the fireside of 
the heart; above the clouds it is too cold. You 
must be simple in your speech: too much polish 
suggests insincerity. The great orator idealizes 
the real, transfigures the common, makes even the 
inanimate throb and thrill, fills the gallery of the 
imagination with statues and pictures perfect in 
form and color, brings to light the gold hoarded 
by memory, the miser — shows the glittering coin 
to the spendthrift, hope — enriches the brain, en- 
nobles the heart, and quickens the conscience. Be- 
tween his lips, words bud and blossom. 

If you wish to know the difference between an 
orator and an elocutionist — between what is felt 
and what is said — between what the heart and 
brain can do together and what the brain can do 
alone — read Lincoln's wondrous words at Gettys- 
burg, and then the speech of Edward Everett. The 
oration of Lincoln will never be forgotten. It will 
live until languages are dead and lips are dust. 
The speech of Everett will never be read. The elo- 
cutionists believe in the virtue of voice, the sub- 
limity of syntax, the majesty of long sentences, and 
the genius of gesture. The orator loves the real, 
the simple, the natural. He places the thought 
above all. He knows that the greatest ideas should 
be expressed in the shortest words — that the 
greatest statues need the least drapery. 

Lincoln was an immense personality — firm but 
not obstinate. Obstinacy is egotism — firmness, 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 339 

heroism. He influenced others without effort, un- 
consciously ; and they submitted to him as men sub- 
mit to nature, unconsciously. He was severe with 
himself, and for that reason lenient with others. 
He appeared to apologize for being kinder than 
his fellows. He did merciful things as stealthily 
as others committed crimes. Almost ashamed of 
tenderness, he said and did the noblest words and 
deeds with that charming confusion — that awk- 
wardness — that is the perfect grace of modesty. 
As a noble man, wishing to pay a small debt to a 
poor neighbor, reluctantly offers a hundred-dollar 
bill and asks for change, fearing that he may be 
suspected either of making a display of wealth or 
a pretense of payment, so Lincoln hesitated to show 
his wealth of goodness, even to the best he knew. 
A great man stooping, not wishing to make his 
fellows feel that they were small or mean. 

He knew others, because perfectly acquainted 
with himself. He cared nothing for place, but 
everything for principle; nothing for money, but 
everything for independence. Where no principle 
was involved, easily swayed - willing to go slowly, 
if in the right direction — sometimes wilhng to 
stop, but he would not go back, and he would not 
go wrong. He was willing to wait. He knew 
that the event was not waiting, and that fate was 
not the fool of chance. He knew that slavery had 
defenders, but no defense, and that they who at ck 
the ric^ht must wound themselves. He was ne.hc. 
Z^nt nor slave. He neither knelt nor scorned. 
With him, men were neither great nor small,- 



340 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

they were right or wrong. Through manners, 
clothes, titles, rags and race he saw the real — that 
which is. Beyond accident, policy, compromise 
and war he saw the end. He was patient as Des- 
tiny, whose undecipherable hieroglyphs were so 
deeply graven on his sad and tragic face. 

Nothing discloses real character like the use of 
power. It is easy for the weak to be gentle. Most 
people can bear adversity. But if you wish to 
know what a man really is, give him power. This 
is the supreme test. It is the glory of Lincoln that, 
having almost absolute power, he never abused it, 
except upon the side of mercy. 

Wealth could not purchase, power could not awe 
this divine, this loving man. He knew no fear ex- 
cept the fear of doing wrong. Hating slavery, 
pitying the master — seeking to conquer, not per- 
sons, but prejudices — he was the embodiment of 
the self-denial, the courage, the hope, and the no- 
bility of a nation. He spoke, not to inflame, not to 
upbraid, but to convince. He raised his hands, not 
to strike, but in benediction. He longed to par- 
don. He loved to see the pearls of joy on the 
cheeks of a wife whose husband he had rescued 
from death. 

Lincoln was the grandest figure of the fiercest 
civil w^ar. He is the gentlest memory of our world. 



LINCOLN 341 



LINCOLN^ 

PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR 

Hurt was the Nation with a mighty wound, 

And all her ways were filled with clam'rous sound, 

Wailed loud the South with unremitting grief, 

And wept the North that could not find relief. 

Then madness joined its harshest tone to strife : 

A minor note swelled in the song of life 

Till, stirring with the love that filled his breast, 

But still, unflinching at the Right's behest 

Grave Lincoln came, strong-handed, from afar, — 

The mighty Homer of the lyre of war ! 

'Twas he who bade the raging tempest cease, 

Wrenched from his strings the harmony of peace, 

Muted the strings that made the discord, — Wrong, 

And gave his spirit up in thund'rous song. 

Oh, mighty Master of the mighty lyre ! 

Earth heard and trembled at thy strains of fire : 

Earth learned of thee what Heav'n already knew, 

And wrote thee down among her treasured few ! 

1 By permission of Mrs. Mathilde Dunbar. 



342 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

THE GRANDEST FIGURE ^ 

BY WALT WHITMAN 

Glad am I to give even the most brief and 
shorn testimony in memory of Abraham Lincohi. 
Everything I heard about him authentically, and 
every time I saw him (and it was my fortune 
through 1862 to '65 to see, or pass a word with, 
or watch him, personally, perhaps twenty or thirty 
times), added to and annealed my respect and love 
at the passing moment. And as I dwell on what 
I myself heard or saw of the mighty Westerner, 
and blend it with the history and literature of my 
age, and conclude it with his death, it seems like 
some tragic play, superior to all else I know — 
vaster and fierier and more convulsionary, for this 
America of ours, than Eschylus or Shakespeare 
ever drew for Athens or for England. And then 
the Moral permeating, underlying all! the Lesson 
that none so remote, none so illiterate — no age, no 
class — but may directly or indirectly read ! 

Abraham Lincoln's was really one of those char- 
acters, the best of which is the result of long trains 
of cause and effect — needing a certain spacious- 
ness of time, and perhaps even remoteness, to prop- 
erly enclose them — having unequaled influence on 
the shaping of this Republic (and therefore the 
world) as to-day, and then far more important 
in the future. Thus the time has by no means yet 

^ By permission of David McKay. 



THE GRANDEST FIGURE 343 

come for a thorough measurement of him. Never- 
theless, we who hve in his era — who have seen 
him, and heard him, face to face, and in the midst 
of, or just parting from, the strong and strange 
events which he and we have had to do with, can in 
some respects bear valuable, perhaps indispensable 
testimony concerning him. 

How does this man compare with the acknowl- 
edged " Father of his country ? " Washington was 
modeled on the best Saxon and Franklin of the age 
of the Stuarts (rooted in the Elizabethan period) 
— was essentially a noble Englishman, and just the 
kind needed for the occasions and the times of 
i776-'83. Lincoln, underneath his practicality, 
was far less European, far more Western, original, 
essentially non-conventional, and had a certain sort 
of out-door or prairie stamp. One of the best of 
the late commentators on Shakespeare (Professor 
Dowden), makes the height and aggregate of his 
quality as a poet to be, that he thoroughly blended 
the ideal with the practical or realistic. If this be 
so I should say that what Shakespeare did m 
poetic expression, Abraham Lincoln essentially did 
in his personal and official life. I should say the 
invisible foundations and vertebrae of his character, 
more than any man's in history, were mystica ab- 
stract, moral and spiritual - while upon all of 
them was built, and out of all of them radiated, 
under the control of the average of f'^^'^^^' 
what the vulgar call horse-sense, and a h e o Kn 
bent by temporary but most urgent materialistic 
and political reasons. 



344 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

He seems to have been a man of indomitable 
firmness (even obstinacy) on rare occasions, in- 
volving great points; but he v^as generally very 
easy, flexible, tolerant, respecting minor matters. 
I note that even those reports and anecdotes in- 
tended to level him down, all leave the tinge of a 
favorable impression of him. As to his religious 
nature, it seems to me to have certainly been of the 
amplest, deepest-rooted kind. 

Dear to Democracy, to the very last! And 
among the paradoxes generated by America not 
the least curious, was that spectacle of all the kings 
and queens and emperors of the earth, many from 
remote distances, sending tributes of condolence 
and sorrow in memory of one raised through the 
commonest average of life — a rail-splitter and flat- 
boatman ! 

Considered from contemporary points of view — 
who knows what the future may decide? — and 
from the points of view of current Democracy and 
The Union (the only thing like passion or infatua- 
tion in the man was the passion for the Union of 
these States), Abraham Lincoln seems to me the 
grandest figure yet, on all the crowded canvas of 
the Nineteenth Century. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 345 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

BY LYMAN ABBOTT 

To comprehend the current of history sympa- 
thetically, to appreciate the spirit of the age, 
prophetically, to know what God, by His provi- 
dence, is working out in the epoch and the com- 
munity, and so to work with him as to guide the 
current and embody in noble deeds the spirit of 
the age in working out the divine problem, — this 
is true greatness. The man who sets his powers, 
however gigantic, to stemming the current and 
thwarting the divine purposes, is not truly great. 

Abraham Lincoln was made the Chief Executive 
of a nation whose Constitution was unlike that of 
any other nation on the face of the globe. We as- 
sume that, ordinarily, public sentiment will change 
so gradually that the nation can always secure a 
true representative of its purpose in the presiden- 
tial chair by an election every four years. Mr. 
Scl hew the presidential office at a time wen 

^H^timent was re^^^^^^^ 
:^b«C unjoin, that he was at., ^^^^^^^^^^ 

rtSrSS?°^:"-pLn%roclama- 



346 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

tion, to make his signature, not the act of an indi- 
vidual man, the edict of a military imperator, but 
the representative act of a great nation. He was 
the greatest President in American History, because 
in a time of revolution he grasped the purposes of 
the American people and embodied them in an act 
of justice and humanity which was in the highest 
sense the act of the American Republic. 



LINCOLN THE IMMORTAL 



ANONYMOUS 

From Caesar to Bismarck and Gladstone the 
world has had its soldiers and its statesmen, who 
rose to eminence and power step by step through 
a series of geometrical progression, as it were, each 
promotion following in regular order, the whole 
obedient to well-established and well-understood 
laws of cause and effect. These were not what we 
call *' men of destiny." They were men of the 
time. They were men whose career had a begin- 
ning, a middle and an end, rounding off a life with 
a history, full, it may be, of interesting and ex- 
citing events, but comprehensible and comprehen- 
sive, simple, clear, complete. 

The inspired men are fewer. Whence their 
emanation, where and how they got their power, 
and by what rule they lived, moved and had their 
being, we cannot see. There is no explication to 



LINCOLN THE IMMORTAL 347 

these lives. They rose from shadow and went in 
mist. We see them, feel them, but we know them 
not. They arrived, God's word upon their lips; 
they did their office, God's mantle upon them ; and 
they passed away God's holy light between the 
world and them, leaving behind a memory half 
mortal and half myth. From first to last they were 
distinctly the creations of some special providence, 
baffling the wit of man to fathom, defeating the 
machinations of the world, the flesh and the devil 
until their work was done, and passed from the 
scene as mysteriously as they had come upon it; 
Luther, to wit; Shakespeare, Burns, even Bona- 
parte, the archangel of war, havoc and ruin; not 
to go back Into the dark ages for examples of the 
hand of God stretched out to raise us, to protect 
and to cast down. 

Tried by this standard and observed In an his- 
toric spirit, where shall we find an illustration more 
Impressive than in Abraham Lincoln, whose life, 
career and death might be chanted by a Greek 
chorus as at once the prelude and the epilogue of 
the most Imperial theme of modern times. 

Born as low as the Son of God In a hovel, of 
what real parentage we know not ; reared m penury, 
squalor, with no gleam of light, nor fair sur- 
roundings ; a young manhood vexed by wcrd 
dreams and visions, bordering at times on mad^ 
ness- singularly awkward, ungainly, even among 
thtmicouth about him; grotesque In his aspects 
and ways, it was reserved for this strange ban. 
late in life, without name or fame or ordinary 



348 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY' 

preparation, to be snatched from obscurity, raised 
to supreme command, and entrusted with the des- 
tiny of a nation. 

The great leaders of his party were made to 
stand aside ; the most experienced and accompHshed 
men of the day, men Hke Seward and Chase and 
Sumner, statesmen famous and trained, were sent 
to the rear; while this comparatively unknown 
and fantastic figure was brought by unseen hands 
to the front and given the reins of power. It is 
entirely immaterial whether we believe in what 
he said or did, whether we are for him or against 
him; but for us to admit that during four years, 
carrying with them such a pressure of respons- 
ibility as the world has never, witnessed before, he 
filled the measure of the vast space allotted him 
in the actions of mankind and in the eyes of the 
world, is to say that he was inspired of God, for 
nowhere else could he have acquired the enormous 
equipment indispensable to the situation. 

Where did Shakespeare get his genius? Where 
did Mozart get his music? Whose hand smote 
the lyre of the Scottish plowman? and stayed the 
life of the German priest? God alone; and, so 
surely as these were raised up by God, inspired 
by God was Abraham Lincoln, and, a thousand 
years hence, no story, no tragedy, no epic poem 
will be filled with greater wonder than that which 
tells of his life and death. If Lincoln was not in- 
spired of God, then were not Luther, or Shakes- 
peare, or Burns. If Lincoln was not inspired by 
God, then there is no such thing on earth as special 



THE CRISIS AND THE HERO 



349 



providence or the interposition of divine power in 
the affairs of men. 



THE CRISIS AND THE HERO 

BY FREDERIC HARRISON 

The great struggle which has for ever decided 
the cause of slavery of man to man, is, beyond 
all question, the most critical which the world 
has seen since the great revolutionary outburst. 
If ever there was a question which was to test 
political capacity and honesty it was this. A true 
statesman, here if ever, was bound to forecast 
truly the issue, and to judge faithfully that 
cause at stake. We know now, it is beyond dis- 
pute, that the cause which won was certain to win 
in the end, that its reserve force was absolutely 
without limit, that its triumph was one of the turn- 
ing-points in modern civilization. It was morally 
certain to succeed, and it did succeed with an 
overwhelming and mighty success. From first to 
last both might and right went all one way. The 
people of England went wholly that way. The of- 
ficial classes went wholly some other way. 

One of the great key-notes of England's fu- 
ture is simply this — what will be her relations with 
that great republic? If the two branches of the 
Anglo-Saxon race are to form two phases of one 
political movement, their welfare and that of the 
world will be signally promoted. If their courses 



350 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

are marred by jealousies or contests, both will be 
fatally retarded. Real confidence and sympathy 
extended to that people in the hour of their trial 
would have forged an eternal bond between us. 
To discredit and distrust them, then, was to sow 
deep the seeds of antipathy. Yet, although a union 
in feeling was of importance so great, although so 
little would have secured it, the governing classes 
of England wantonly did all they could to foment 
a breach. 

A great political judgment fell upon a race of 
men, our own brothers ; the inveterate social malady 
they inherited came to a crisis. We watched it 
gather with exultation and insult. There fell on 
them the most terrible necessity which can befall 
men, the necessity of sacrificing the flower of their 
citizens in civil war, of tearing up their civil and 
social system by the roots, of transforming the most 
peaceful type of society into the most military. 
We magnified and shouted over every disaster; 
we covered them with insult ; we filled the world 
with ominous forebodings and unjust accusations. 
There came on them one awful hour when the 
powers of evil seemed almost too strong; when 
any but a most heroic race would have sunk under 
the blows of their traitorous kindred. We chose 
that moment to give actual succour to their enemy, 
and stabbed them in the back with a wound which 
stung their pride even more than it crippled their 
strength. They displayed the most splendid ex- 
amples of energy and fortitude which the modern 
world has seen, with which the defence of Greece 



LINCOLN 351 

against Asia, and of France against Europe, alone 
can be compared in the whole annals of mankind. 
They developed almost ideal civic virtues and gifts ; 
generosity, faith, firmness; sympathy the most af- 
fecting, resources the most exhaustless, ingenuity 
the most magical. They brought forth the most 
beautiful and heroic character who in recent times 
has ever led a nation, the only blameless type of 
the statesman since the days of Washington. Un- 
der him they created the purest model of govern- 
ment which has yet been seen on the earth — a 
whole nation throbbing into one great heart and 
brain, one great heart and brain giving unity and 
life to a whole nation. The hour of their success 
came; unchequered in the completeness of its 
triumph, unsullied by any act of vengeance, hal- 
lowed by a great martyrdom. 



LINCOLN ' 

BY JOHN VANCE CHENEY 

The hour was on us; where the man? 
The fateful sands unfaltering ran, 

And up the way of tears 

He came into the years, 

Our pastoral captain. Forth he came. 
As one that answers to his name; 
Nor dreamed how high his charge, 
His work how fair and large,— 
iBy permission of The Interior; Chicago. 



352 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

To set the stones back in the wall 

Lest the divided house should fall, 

And peace from men depart, 

Hope and the childlike heart. 

We looked on him ; " 'Tis he," we said, 
" Come crownless and unheralded, 
The shepherd who will keep 
The flocks, will fold the sheep." 

Unknightly, yes ; yet 'twas the mien 
Presaging the immortal scene. 

Some battle of His wars 

Who sealeth up the stars. 

Not he would take the past between 
His hands, wipe valor's tablets clean. 

Commanding greatness wait 

Till he stand at the gate; 

Not he would cramp to one small head 
The awful laurels of the dead, 

Time's mighty vintage cup. 

And drink all honor up. 

No flutter of the banners bold, 
Borne by the lusty sons of old. 
The haughty conquerors 
Sent forward to their wars; 

Not his their blare, their pageantries. 
Their goal, their glory, was not his; 
Humbly he came to keep 
The flocks, to fold the sheep. 



HIS INDIVIDUALITY 353 

The need comes not without the man ; 
The prescient hours unceasing ran, 

And up the way of tears 

He came into the years, 

Our pastoral captain, skilled to crook 
The spear into the pruning hook, 

The simple, kindly man, 

Lincoln, American. 



MAJESTIC IN HIS INDIVIDUALITY 

BY J. P. NEWMAN 

Human glory is often fickle as the winds, and 
transient as a summer day, but Abraham Lincoln's 
place in history is assured. All the symbols of 
this world's admiration are his. He is embalmed 
in song; recorded in history; eulogized in pane- 
gyric ; cast in bronze ; sculptured in marble ; painted 
on canvas ; enshrined in the hearts of his country- 
men, and lives in the memories of mankind. 
Some men are brilliant in their times, but their 
words and deeds are of little worth to history : but 
his mission was as large as his country, vast as 
humanity, enduring as time. No greater thought 
can ever enter the human mind than obedience to 
law and freedom for all. Some men are not hon- 
ored by their contemporaries, and die neglected. 
Here h one more honored than any other man while 
living, more revered when dying, and destined to 



354 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

be loved to the last syllable of recorded time. He 
has this three-fold greatness, — great in life, great 
in death, great in the history of the world. Lin- 
coln will grow upon the attention and affections of 
posterity, because he saved the life of the great- 
est nation, whose ever-widening influence is to bless 
humanity. Measured by this standard, Lincoln 
shall live in history from age to age. 

Great men appear in groups, and in groups they 
disappear from the vision of the world; but we do 
not love or hate men in groups. We speak of 
Gutenberg and his coadjutors, of Washington and 
his generals, of Lincoln and his cabinet : but when 
the day of judgment comes, we crown the inventor 
of printing; we place the laurel on the brow of 
the father of his country, and the chaplet of re- 
nown upon the head of the saviour of the Republic. 

Some men are great from the littleness of their 
surroundings ; but he only is great who is great 
amid greatness. Lincoln had great associates, — 
Seward, the sagacious diplomatist ; Chase, the em- 
inent financier; Stanton, the incomparable Secre- 
tary of War ; with illustrious Senators and soldiers. 
Neither could take his part nor fill his position. 
And the same law of the coming and going of 
great men is true of our own day. In piping times 
of peace, genius is not aflame, and true greatness 
is not apparent; but when the crisis comes, then 
God lifts the curtain from obscurity, and reveals 
the man for the hour. 

Lincoln stands forth on the page of history, 
unique in his character, and majestic in his in- 



HIS INDIVIDUALITY 355 

dividuality. Like Milton's angel, he was an orig- 
inal conception. He was raised up for his times. 
He was a leader of leaders. By instinct the com- 
mon heart trusted in him. He was of the people 
and for the people. He had been poor and labor- 
ious ; but greatness did not change the tone of his 
spirit, or lessen the sympathies of his nature. His 
character was strangely symmetrical. He was 
temperate, without austerity; brave, without rash- 
ness ; constant, without obstinacy. His love of 
justice was only equalled by his delight in com- 
passion. His regard for personal honor was only 
excelled by love of country. His self-abnegation 
found its highest expression in the public good. 
His integrity was never questioned. His honesty 
was above suspicion. He was more solid than 
brilliant; his judgment dominated his imagination; 
his ambition was subject to his modesty, and his love 
of justice held the mastery over all personal con- 
siderations. Not excepting Washington, who in- 
herited wealth and high social position, Lincoln 
is the fullest representative American in our na- 
tional annals. He had touched every round in the 
human ladder. He illustrated the possibilities of 
our citizenship. We are not ashamed of his humble 
oricrin. We are proud of his greatness. 



IX 
LINCOLN'S YARNS AND SAYINGS 



THE QUESTION OF LEGS 

Whenever the people of Lincoln's neighborhood 
engaged in dispute ; whenever a bet was to be de- 
cided ; when they differed on points of religion or 
politics; when they wanted to get out of trouble, 
or desired advice regarding anything on the earth, 
below it, above it, or under the sea, they went to 
" Abe/' 

Two fellows, after a hot dispute lasting some 
hours, over the problem as to how long a man's 
legs should be in proportion to the size of his body, 
stamped into Lincoln's office one day and put the 
question to him. 

Lincoln listened gravely to the arguments ad- 
vanced by both contestants, spent some time in 
" reflecting " upon the matter, and then, turning 
around in his chair and facing the disputants, de- 
livered his opinion with all the gravity of a judge 
sentencing a fellow-being to death. 

" This question has been a source of contro- 
versy," he said, slowly and deliberately, " for un- 
told ages, and it is about time it should be definitely 
decided. It has led to bloodshed in the past, and 
there is no reason to suppose it will not lead to the 
same in the future. 

'' After much thought and consideration, not to 
mention mental worry and anxiety, it is my 
359 



36o LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

opinion, all side issues being swept aside, that a 
man's lower limbs, in order to preserve harmony 
of proportion, should be at least long enough to 
reach from his body to the ground." 



A FAMOUS STORY — HOW LINCOLN WAS 
PRESENTED WITH A KNIFE ! 

" In the days when I used to be * on the circuit,' " 
said Lincoln, " I was accosted in the cars by a 
stranger, who said: 

" * Excuse me, sir, but I have an article in my 
possession which belongs to you.' 

" * How is that ? ' I asked, considerably aston- 
ished. 

" The stranger took a jack-knife from his pocket. 
* This knife,' said he, ' was placed in my hands 
some years ago, with the injunction that I was to 
keep it until I found a man uglier than myself. I 
have carried it from that time to this. Allow me 
now to say, sir, that I think you are fairly entitled 
to the property.' " 



"FOOLING" THE PEOPLE 

Lincoln was a strong believer in the virtue of 
dealing honestly with the people. 

" If you once forfeit the confidence of your fel- 



YARNS AND STORIES 361 

low-citizens," he said to a caller at the White 
House, " you can never regain their respect and 
esteem. 

" It is true that you may fool all the people some 
of the time; you can even fool some of the people 
all the time ; but you can't fool all of the people all 
the time." 



LINCOLN'S NAME FOR ''WEEPING 
WATER" 

" I was speaking one time to Mr. Lincoln," said 
Governor Saunders, of Nebraska, " of a little Ne- 
braskan settlement on the Weeping Waters, a 
stream in our State." 

" ' Weeping Water ! ' " said he. 

" Then with a twinkle in his eye, he continued. 

" ' I suppose the Indians out there call it Minne- 
boohoo, don't they? They ought to, if Laughing 
Water is Minnehaha in their language.' " 



LINCOLN'S CONFAB WITH A COMMITTEE 
ON GRANT'S WHISKY" 

Just previous to the fall of Vicksburg, a self- 
Jstituted committee, solicitous for the mc)- e 
our armies, took it upon themselves to v-it the 
President and urge the removal of General Grant. 



362 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

In some surprise Mr. Lincoln inquired, " For 
what reason ? " 

" Why," repHed the spokesman, '' he drinks too 
much whisky." 

"Ah! " rejoined Mr. Lincoln, dropping his lower 
lip. " By the way, gentlemen, can either of you 
tell me where General Grant procures his whisky? 
because, if I can find out, I will send every general 
in the field a barrel of it ! " 



MILD REBUKE TO A DOCTOR 

Dr. Jerome Walker, of Brooklyn, told how Mr. 
Lincoln once administered to him a mild rebuke. 
The doctor was showing Mr. Lincoln through the 
hospital at City Point. 

" Finally, after visiting the wards occupied by 
our invalid and convalescing soldiers," said Dr. 
Walker, " we came to three wards occupied by 
sick and wounded Southern prisoners. With a 
feeling of patriotic duty, I said : ' Mr. President, 
you won't want to go in there ; they are only rebels.' 

" I will never forget how he stopped and gently 
laid his large hand upon my shoulder and quietly 
answered, * You mean Confederates ! ' And I 
have meant Confederates ever since. 

" There was nothing left for me to do after the 
President's remark but to go with him through 
these three wards ; and I could not see but that he 
was just as kind, his hand-shakings just as hearty, 
his interest just as real for the welfare of the men, 
as when he was among our own soldiers." 



FROM LINCOLN'S SPEECHES AND 
WRITINGS 



LINCOLN'S LIFE AS WRITTEN BY 
HIMSELF 

The compiler of the "Dictionary of Congress" 
states that while preparing that work for publication 
in 1858, he sent to Mr. Lincoln the usual request for 
a sketch of his life, and received the following reply: 

" Born February 12, 1809, in Hardin Co., Ken- 
tucky. 

Education Defective. Profession a Lawyer. 
Have been a Captain of Volunteers in Black Hawk 
War. Postmaster at a very small office. Four 
times a member of the Illinois Legislature, and was 
a member of the Lower House of Congress. 
Yours, etc. 

A. Lincoln." 



THE INJUSTICE OF SLAVERY 

{Speech at Peoria, III, October 16, 1854) 

This declared indifference, but, as I must think. 
covert zeal, for the spread of slavery, I cannot but 
hate. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice 
365 



zee LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

of slavery itself; I hate it because it deprives our 
republic of an example of its just influence in the 
v^orld ; enables the enemies of free institutions with 
plausibility to taunt us as hypocrites; causes the 
real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity ; and, 
especially, because it forces so many really good 
men among ourselves into an open v^ar with the 
very fundamental principles of civil liberty, crit- 
icising the Declaration of Independence and in- 
sisting that there is no right principle of action but 
self-interest. 

The doctrine of self-government Is right, — 
absolutely and eternally right, — but it has no just 
application, as here attempted. Or, perhaps, I 
should rather say, that whether it has such just 
application depends upon whether a negro is not, 
or is, a man. If he is not a man, in that case he 
who is a man may, as a matter of self-government, 
do just what he pleases with him. But if the 
negro is a man, is it not to that extent a total de- 
struction of self-government to say that he, too, 
shall not govern himself? 

When the white man governs himself that 
is self-government; but when he governs himself, 
and also governs another man, that is more than 
self-government — that is despotism. 

What I do say is, that no man is good enough 
to govern another man without that other's consent. 

The master not only governs the slave without 
his consent, but he governs him by a set of rules 
altogether different from those which he prescribes 



INJUSTICE OF SLAVERY 367 

for himself. Allow all the governed an equal voice 
in the government; that, and that only, is self- 
government. 

Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's 
nature — opposition to it, in his love of justice. 
These principles are an eternal antagonism; and 
when brought into collision so fiercely as slavery 
extension brings them, shocks and throes and con- 
vulsions must ceaselessly follow. 

Repeal the Missouri Compromise — repeal all 
compromise — and repeal the Declaration of In- 
dependence — repeal all past history — still you 
cannot repeal human nature. 

I particularly object to the new position which 
the avowed principles of the Nebraska law gives 
to slavery in the body politic. I object to it, be- 
cause it assumes that there can be moral right in 
the enslaving of one man by another. I object to 
it as a dangerous dalliance for a free people— a sad 
evidence that feeling prosperity, we forget right,— 
that liberty as a principle we have ceased to revere. 

Little by little, but steadily as man's march to 
the grave, we have been giving up the old for the 
new faith. Near eighty years ago we began by 
declaring that all men are created equal; but now 
from that beginning we have run down to the 
other declaration that for some men to enslave 
others is a 'sacred right of self-government. 
These principles cannot stand together. They arc 
as opposite as God and Mammon. 

Our republican robe is soiled and trailed in the 



368 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY- 

dust. Let us purify it. Let us turn and wash it 
white, in the spirit, if not in the blood, of the 
Revolution. 

Let us turn slavery from its claims of ' moral 
right ' back upon its existing legal rights, and its 
arguments of * necessity.' Let us return it to the 
position our fathers gave it, and there let it rest 
in peace. 

Let us re-adopt the Declaration of Independence, 
and the practices and policy which harmonize with 
it. Let North and South — let all Americans — let 
all lovers of liberty everywhere, join in the great 
and good work. 

If we do this, we shall not only have saved 
the Union, but shall have so saved it, as to make 
and to keep it forever worthy of saving. We shall 
have so saved it that the succeeding millions of free, 
happy people, the world over, shall rise up and call 
us blessed to the latest generations. 



SPEECH AT COOPER INSTITUTE, 
FEBRUARY 27, i860 

I defy anyone to show that any living man in 
the whole world ever did, prior to the beginning 
of the present century (and I might almost say 
prior to the beginning of the last half of the pres- 
ent century), declare that, in his understanding, 
any proper division of local from Federal author- 
ity, or any part of the Constitution, forbade the 



COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH 369 

Federal Government to control as to slavery in the 
Federal Territories. 

To those who now so declare, I give, not only 
' our fathers who framed the government under 
which we live,' but with them all other living men 
within the century in which it was framed, among 
whom to search, and they shall not be able to find 
the evidence of a single man agreeing with them. 

I do not mean to say we are bound to follow 
implicitly in whatever our fathers did. To do so 
would be to discard all the lights of current ex- 
perience, to reject all progress, all improvement. 
What I do say is, that if we would supplant the 
opinions and policy of our fathers in any case, we 
should do so upon evidence so conclusive, and argu- 
ment so clear, that even their authority, fairly con- 
sidered and weighed, cannot stand ; and most surely 
not in a case whereof we ourselves declare they un- 
derstood the question better than we. 

Let all who believe that 'our fathers, who 
framed the government under which we live,' un- 
derstood this question just as well, and even better, 
than we do now, speak as they spoke, and act as 
they acted upon It. 

It is exceedingly desirable that all parts of this 
great confederacy shall be at peace, and in har- 
mony one with another. Let us Republicans do 
our part to have it so. Even though much pro- 
voked, let us do nothing through passion and ill- 
temper. , ... ^ ^^ 

Even though the Southern people wil not so 
much as listen to us, let us calmly consider their 



370 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

demands, and yield to them if, in our deliberate 
view of our duty, we possibly can. Judging by all 
they say and do, and by the subject and nature of 
their controversy with us, let us determine, if we 
can, what will satisfy them. 

Wrong as we think slavery is, we can yet af- 
ford to let it alone where it is, because that much 
is due to the necessity arising from its actual pres- 
ence in the nation. But can we, while our votes 
will prevent it, allow it to spread into the national 
Territories, and to overrun us here in these free 
States ? 

If our sense of duty forbids this, then let us 
stand by our duty, fearlessly and effectively. Let 
us be diverted by none of those sophistical con- 
trivances wherewith we are so industriously plied 
and belabored — contrivances such as groping for 
some middle ground between the right and wrong, 
vain as the search for a man who should be neither 
a living man nor a dead man; such as a policy of 
' don't care ' on a question about which all true 
men do care; such as Union appeals beseeching 
true Union men to yield to Disunionists, reversing 
the divine rule, and calling, not the sinners, but 
the righteous to repentance ; such as invocations to 
Washington imploring men to unsay what Wash- 
ington said, and undo what Washington did. 

Let us have faith that right makes might, and 
in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our 
duty, as we understand it. 



FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS 371 



FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS, 
MARCH 4, 1861 

Apprehension seems to exist among the people 
of the Southern States, that by the occasion of a 
RepubHcan administration, their property and their 
peace and personal security are to be endangered. 
There has never been any reasonable cause for such 
apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence 
to the contrary has all the while existed, and been 
open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all 
the published speeches of him who now addresses 
you. 

I do but quote from one of those speeches, 
when I declared that " I have no purpose, directly 
or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of 
slavery, in the States where it exists." 

I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and 
I have no inclination to do so. Those who 
nominated and elected me did so with the full 
knowledge that I had made this and many similar 
declarations, and had never recanted them. I now 
reiterate these sentiments, and in doing so, I only 
press upon the public attention the most conclusive 
evidence of which the case is susceptible, that the 
property, peace, and security of no section are to be 
in any wise endangered by the now incommg ad- 
ministration. . , ^ , 

I take the official oath to-day w.th no mctital 
reservations, and with no purpose to construe the 



Z^2 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

Constitution or laws by any hypercritical rules; 
and, while I do not choose now to specify particular 
acts of Congress as proper to be enforced, I do 
suggest that it will be much safer for all, both in 
official and private stations, to conform to and 
abide by all those acts which stand unrepealed, than 
to violate any of them, trusting to find impunity in 
having them held to be unconstitutional. 

It is seventy-two years since the first inaugura- 
tion of a president under our national constitution. 
During that period, fifteen different and very dis- 
tinguished citizens have in succession administered 
the executive branch of the government. They 
have conducted it through many perils, and gen- 
erally with great success. Yet, with this scope for 
precedent, I now enter upon the same task, for the 
brief constitutional term of four years, under great 
and peculiar difficulties. 

I hold, that in the contemplation of universal 
law and the Constitution, the union of these States 
is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if not ex- 
pressed, in the fundamental law of all national 
governments. It is safe to assert that no govern- 
ment proper ever had a provision in its organic law 
for its own termination. Continue to execute all 
the express provisions of our national Constitution, 
and the Union will endure forever. 

To those, however, who really love the Union 
may I not speak ? Before entering upon so grave a 
matter as the destruction of our national fabric, 
with all its benefits, its memories, and its hopes, 
would it not be well to ascertain why we do it? 



FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS 373 

Will you hazard so desperate a step while any por- 
tion of the ills you fly from have no real exist- 
ence? Will you, while the certain ills you fly to 
are greater than all the real ones you fly from? 
Will you risk the commission of so fearful a mis- 
take? 

All profess to be content in the Union if all 
constitutional rights can be maintained. Is it true, 
then, that any right plainly written in the Con- 
stitution has been denied? I think not. Happily, 
the human mind is so constituted that no party 
can reach to the audacity of doing this. 

All the vital rights of minorities and of in- 
dividuals are so plainly assured to them by af- 
firmations and negations, guarantees and prohibi- 
tions, in the Constitution, that controversies never 
arise concerning them. But no organic law can 
ever be framed with a provision specifically applic- 
able to every question which may occur in prac- 
tical administration. No foresight can anticipate, 
nor any document of reasonable length contain, ex- 
press provision for all possible questions. 

Shall fugitives from labor be surrendered by 
National or by State authority? The Constitu- 
tion does not expressly say. Must Congress pro- 
tect slavery in the Territories? The Constitution 
does not expressly say. 

From questions of this class spring all our con- 
stitutional controversies, and we divide upon llicni 
into majorities and minorities. If the minority will 
not acquiesce, the majority must, or the govern- 
ment must cease. There is no alternative for con- 



374 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

tinuing the government but acquiescence on the one 
side or the other. 

If the minority will secede rather than acqui- 
esce, they make a precedent which, in turn, will 
ruin and divide them ; for a minority of their own 
will secede from them whenever a majority re- 
fuses to be controlled by such a minority. For 
instance, why should not any portion of a new con- 
federacy, a year or two hence, arbitrarily secede 
again, precisely as portions of the present Union 
now claim to secede from it? 

All who cherish disunion sentiments are now 
being educated to the exact temper of doing this. 
Is there such perfect identity of interest among the 
States to compose a new union as to produce har- 
mony only, and prevent renewed secession? 
Plainly, the central idea of secession is the essence 
of anarchy. 

Physically speaking, we cannot separate ; we 
cannot move our respective sections from each 
other, nor build an impassable wall between them. 
A husband and wife may be divorced, and go out 
of the presence and beyond the reach of each other ; 
but the different parts of our country cannot do 
this. They cannot but remain face to face ; and 
intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must con- 
tinue between them. 

Is it possible, then, to make that intercourse 
more advantageous or more satisfactory after 
separation than before? Suppose you go to war, 
you cannot fight always ; and when, after much 
loss on both sides, and no gain on either, you 



FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS 375 

cease fighting, the identical questions as to terms 
of intercourse are again upon you. 

Why should there not be patient confidence in 
the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any 
better or equal hope in the world? In our present 
differences is either party without faith of being 
in the right? If the Almighty Ruler of nations 
with His eternal truth and justice be on your side 
of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth 
and that justice will surely prevail by the judg- 
ment of this great tribunal of the American people. 

By the frame of government under which we 
live, this same people have wisely given their pub- 
lic servants but little power for mischief, and have 
with equal wisdom provided for the return of that 
little to their own hands at very short intervals. 
While the people retain their virtue and vigilance, 
no administration, by any extreme of wickedness or 
folly, can very seriously injure the Government in 
the short space of four years. %^ 

My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and J 
well upon the whole subject — nothing valuable 
can be lost by taking time. If there be an object 
to hurry any of you, in hot haste, to a step which 
you would never take deliberately, that object will 
be frustrated by taking time, but no good object 
can be frustrated by it. Such of you as are now 
dissatisfied still have the old Constitution unim- 
paired, and, on the sensitive point, the laws of 
your ;wn framing under it; while the new ad- 
ministration will have no immediate Pow- U 
wanted to change either. If it were admitted 



Z^e LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

that you who are dissatisfied hold the right side 
in the dispute, there still is no single good reason 
for precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism, 
Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has 
never yet forsaken this favored land, are still com- 
petent to adjust in the best way all our present 
difficulties. 

In your hands, my dissatisfied countrymen, and 
not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. 
The Government will not assail you. You can have 
no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. 
You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy 
the government, while I shall have the most solemn 
one to preserve, protect, and defend it. 

I am about to close. We are not enemies, but 
friends. We must not be enemies. Though pas- 
sion may have strained, it must not break our bonds 
of affection. The mystic chords of memory, 
stretching from every battle field and patriot grave, 
to every loving heart and hearthstone all over this 
broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union 
when again touched, as surely they will be, by the 
better angels of our nature. 



LETTER TO HORACE GREELEY 

The Administration, during the early months of the 
war for the Union, was greatly perplexed as to the 
proper mode of dealing with slavery, especially in 
the districts occupied by the Union forces. In the 



LETTER TO GREELEY 377 

summer of 1862, when Mr. Lincoln was earnestly con- 
templating his Proclamation of Emancipation, Horace 
Greeley, the leading Republican editor, published in 
his paper, the New York Tribune, a severe article in 
the form of a letter addressed to the President, taking 
him to task for failing to meet the just expectations of 
twenty millions of loyal people. Thereupon Mr. Lin- 
coln sent him the following letter: — 

Executive Mansion, Washington, 
August 22, 1862. 
Hon. Horace Greeley. 

Dear Sir: I have just read yours of the 19th, 
addressed to myself through the New York 
Tribune. If there be in it any statements or as- 
sumptions of fact which I may know to be erron- 
eous, I do not now and here controvert them. If 
there be in it any inferences which I may believe to 
be falsely drawn, I do not now and here argue 
against them. If there be perceptible in it an im- 
patient and dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference 
to an old friend, whose heart I have always sup- 
posed to be right. As to the policy I " seem to be 
pursuing," as you say, I have not meant to leave 
any one in doubt. _ , 

I would save the Union. I would save it m the 
shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner 
the National authority can be restored, the nearer 
the Union will be "The Union as it was. If 
there be those who would not save the Lnion un- 
less they could at the same time destroy slavery 

do nol agree with them. My paramount objec 
in this struggle is to save the Union and is not 



378 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

either to save or destroy Slavery. If I could save 
the Union without freeing any slave, I would do 
it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, 
I would do it ; and if I could do it by freeing some 
and leaving others alone, I would also do that. 
What I do about Slavery and the colored race, I 
do because I believe it helps to save this Union ; 
and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not be- 
lieve it would help to save the Union. I shall do 
less, whenever I shall believe what I am doing 
hurts the cause; and I shall do more, whenever I 
shall believe doing more will help the cause. I 
shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors ; 
and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall 
appear to be true views. I have here stated my 
purpose according to my view of official duty, and 
I intend no modification of my oft-expressed per- 
sonal wish that all men, everywhere, could be free. 

Yours, 

A. Lincoln. 



EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION 

(Issued January i, 1863) 

Now therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President 
of the United States, by virtue of the power vested 
in me as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and 
Navy, in a time of actual armed rebellion against 
the authority of the Government of the United 
States, as a fit and necessary war measure for sup- 



) EMANCIPATION 379 

pressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of 
January, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance 
with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for 
the full period of one hundred days from the date 
of the first above-mentioned order, designate as 
the States and parts of States therein the people 
whereof, respectively, are this day in rebellion 
against the United States, the following, to wit: 
Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana (except the 
parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, 
St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, As- 
sumption, Terrebonne, La Fourche, St. Mary, St. 
Martin and Orleans, including the city of New 
Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia. 
South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia (ex- 
cept the forty-eight counties designated as West 
Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Ac- 
comac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Prin- 
cess Anne, and Norfolk, including the cities of Nor- 
folk and Portsmouth), which excepted parts are for 
the present left precisely as if this proclamation 
were not issued; and by virtue of the power and 
for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare 
that all persons held as slaves within designatec 
States, or parts of States, are, and henceforward 
shall be free, and that the Executive Governmen 
of the United States, including the military and 
naval authorities thereof, will recognize and main- 
tain the freedom of the said persons ; and rcby 
enjoin upon the people so declared ^-e ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
from all violence, unless in necessary self-defen.e , 



38o LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

and I recommend to them that, in all cases when 
allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages. 
And I further declare and make known that such 
persons, of suitable condition, will be received into 
the armed service of the United States, to garrison 
forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to 
man vessels of all sorts in said service. 

And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an 
act of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon 
military necessity, I invoke the considerate judg- 
ment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Al- 
mighty God. 



THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION 
(Issued October 3, 1863) 

The year that is drawing toward its close has 
been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and 
healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so 
constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget 
the source from which they come, others have been 
added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that 
they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the 
heart which is habitually insensible to the ever- 
watchful Providence of Almighty God. 

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled mag- 
nitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed 
to invite and provoke the aggression of foreign 
states, peace has been preserved with all nations, 
order has been maintained, the laws have been 



THANKSGIVING 381 

respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed 
everywhere, except in the theater of miUtary 
conflict. 

The needful diversion of weaUh and strength 
from the fields of peaceful industry to the national 
defense has not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or 
the ship. 

The ax has enlarged the borders of onr settle- 
ments, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as 
of the precious metals, have yielded even more 
abundantly than heretofore. Population has stead- 
ily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has 
been made by the camp, the siege, and the battle- 
field, and the country, rejoicing in the conscious- 
ness of augmented strength and vigor, is per- 
mitted to expect continuance of years with large 
increase of freedom. 

No human council hath devised, nor hath any 
mortal hand worked out, these great things. 
They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, 
who, while dealing with us In anger for our sms, 
hath nevertheless remembered mercy. 

It seemed to me fit and proper that they should 
be solemnly, reverentially, and gratefully acknowl- 
edged as with one heart and voice, by the whole 
American people. . 

I recommend too, that, while offermg up the 
ascriptions justly due to Him for such -ng^ilar 
deliverances and blessings, they do al.o, vv 
humble penitence for our — 1^™^^ 
disobedience, commend to His tenuer care 
iho have become widows, orphans, mourners, or 



382 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we 
are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the 
interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the 
wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as 
may be consistent with divine purposes, to the full 
enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and 
union. 



ADDRESS ON THE BATTLEFIELD OF 
GETTYSBURG 

(At the Dedication of the Cemetery, November 
19, 1863) 

Four score and seven years ago our fathers 
brought forth on this continent a new nation, con- 
ceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition 
that all men are created equal. 

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, test- 
ing whether that nation, or any nation so con- 
ceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We 
are met on a great battlefield of that war. We 
have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a 
final resting place for those who here gave their 
lives that that nation might live. It is altogether 
fitting and proper that we should do this. 

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate — 
we cannot consecrate — we cannot hallow — this 
ground. The brave men, living and dead, who 
struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our 
poor power to add or detract. The world will 



REMARKS TO NEGROES 383 

little note, nor long remember what we say here, 
but it can never forget what they did here. It is 
for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the 
unfinished work which they who fought here have 
thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us 
to be here dedicated to the great task remaining 
before us — that from these honored dead we take 
increased devotion to that cause for which they 
gave the last full measure of devotion — that we 
here highly resolve that these dead shall not have 
died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall 
have a new birth of freedom — and that govern- 
ment of the people, by the people, for the people, 
shall not perish from the earth. 



REMARKS TO NEGROES IN THE STREETS 
OF RICHMOND 

The President walked through the streets of Rich- 
mond—without a guard except a few seamen — in 
company with his son "Tad," and Admiral Porter, 
on the 4th of April, 1865, the day following the evacu- 
ation of the city. Colored people gathered about h.m 
on every side, eager to see and thank their hberator. 
Mr. Lincoln addressed the following remarks to one 
of these gatherings: 

My poor friends, you are free -free as air^ 
You'can cast off the name of slave and ram^^^^^^ 
upon it; it will come to you no more^ Uber^^^^ 
your birthright. God gave it to you as he gave 



384 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

to others, and it is a sin that you have been de- 
prived of it for so many years. 

But you must try to deserve this priceless boon. 
Let the world see that you merit it, and are able 
to maintain it by your good works. Don't let your 
joy carry you into excesses; learn the laws, and 
obey them. Obey God's commandments, and 
thank Him for giving you liberty, for to Him you 
owe all things. There, now, let me pass on; I 
have but little time to spare. I want to see the 
Capitol, and must return at once to Washington 
to secure to you that liberty which you seem to 
prize so highly. 



SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS, 
MARCH 4, 1865 

Fellow-countrymen: At this second appearing 
to take the oath of the Presidential office, there 
is less occasion for an extended address than there 
was at the first. Then a statement, somewhat in 
detail, of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and 
proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, 
during which public declarations have been con- 
stantly called forth on every point and phase of 
the great contest which still absorbs the attention 
and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that 
is new could be presented. 

The progress of our arms, upon which all else 
chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as 



SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS 385 

to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory 
and encouraging to all. With high hope for the 
future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. 

On the occasion corresponding to this, four years 
ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an 
impending civil war. All dreaded it; all sought 
to avert it. While the inaugural address was be- 
ing delivered from this place, devoted altogether 
to saving the Union without war, insurgents' 
agents were in the city seeking to destroy it with- 
out war — seeking to dissolve the Union and divide 
its effects by negotiation. 

Both parties deprecated war ; but one of them 
would make war rather than let the nation survive, 
and the other would accept war rather than let it 
perish. And the war came. 

The prayer of both could not be answered — 
those of neither have been answered fully. The 
Almighty has His own purposes. " Woe unto the 
world because of offenses ! for it must needs be that 
oft'enses come ; but woe to that man by whom the 
offense cometh." 

If we shall suppose that American slavery is 
one of those offenses which, in the providence of 
God, must needs come, but which, having continued 
through His appointed time. He now wills to re- 
move, and that He gives to North and South this 
terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the of- 
fense came, shall we discern therein any departure 
from those divine attributes which the believers m 
a living God always ascribe to Him? 

Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that 



386 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

this mighty scourge of war may soon pass away. 

Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the 
wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and 
fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and 
until every drop of blood drawn by the lash shall 
be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was 
said three thousand years ago, so still it must be 
said, " The judgments of the Lord are true and 
righteous altogether." 

With malice toward none, with charity for all, 
with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see 
the right, let us strive on to finish the work we 
are in ; to bind up the nation's wounds ; to care for 
him who shall have borne the battle, and for his 
widow and for his orphan; to do all which may 
achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among 
ourselves, and with all nations. 



THE END. 



3lv77-l 



